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There is a mixture of breeds in the herd here, with Martin running Charolais and Simmental stock bulls. He keeps replacements from the latter – who is out of Clonagh Tiger Gallant. We are all after the perfect cow herd and Martin has had a frustrating time building his.
There is a mixture of breeds in the herd here, with Martin running Charolais and Simmental stock bulls. He keeps replacements from the latter – who is out of Clonagh Tiger Gallant.
We are all after the perfect cow herd and Martin has had a frustrating time building his.
“We’ve been victims of both TB and changing index values here in recent years. I was close at around 120 cows a few years ago and we’ve had to cull out TB reactors in the last number of years. It decimated us and we’re back 20 or 30 animals on where I want to be,” Martin said.
“I did very little culling during the period to keep numbers up and as a result my herd is over eight years of age on average.”
Slipping stars
To compound this, Martin has fallen foul to plummeting replacement indexes in a big way. His Simmental stock bull has come down from a replacement index value of €154 to €71 in two and a half years. Many of his heifers and young cows were sired by this bull.
Given that his reference number for the Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) was 122, the TB and moving indexes have pulled him from having 77% BDGP eligible (four- and five-star) females to 47%.
While he should be okay for the 2018 target (20% of reference number females at least 16 months old and four- or five-star on replacement index on 31 October), the 2020 target of 50% is a concern.
“We will have to go shopping for a bull soon, I’d like to stick with the Simmental, I think they’re a good dual-purpose animal. I’ve been very happy with my bull in terms of calving and producing good quality. What’s crucifying him is probably his relations in other herds. It’s frustrating.
“I can buy in again now and I’ve purchased 11 good maternal, four- and five-star heifers and plan to go for a few more this backend too. I will keep an eye on the stars, but at the end of the day they’re just guide and I’m out to build my herd back up.
Martin plans on reaching 120 cows and running five different finishing systems on the farm, including an unorthodox trading system.
The pedigree breeders council and ICBF battle continues to roll on. Emanuel O’Dea takes a look at some of the reasons some pedigree breeders are disengaging with ICBF
National Cattle Breeding Centre (NCBC) is Ireland largest cattle-breeding organisation and operates the country’s largest insemination service through shareholders Munster AI and Progressive Genetics.
The past few dry days have given a lifeline for farmers as they try to get field work tidied up, but the flurry of work has also helped keep the sheep trade positive.
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