The Grand National is on in Aintree next weekend. Forty runners and riders will take to the field and punters will have to decide what horses they think will stay the course.

Farmers will be doing something similar over the coming days and weeks as they pick what AI bulls they are going to use on their herd this season.

In some ways, those at Aintree have more information on what horses are likely to be successful than Irish farmers have on their bulls.

The widespread use of genomic selection means that the vast majority of bulls being used on Irish farms have no daughter proofs, whereas all the horses at Aintree have run at least one race before.

Just three of the 75 bulls on the Active Bull List have daughters milking. This means that the reliability of their EBI is based on a blend of the average EBI of their parents and their genomic proof.

The ICBF says that on average, the EBI of genomic bulls is still higher than daughter-proven bulls

When you consider that many of the bulls’ sires aren’t proven either, it means there is even more trust in the genomic evaluations being accurate.

Should farmers be sceptical of genomics? The ICBF says that on average, the EBI of genomic bulls is still higher than daughter-proven bulls, even when these bulls become daughter-proven. While that may be the case across a wide number of bulls, what of the top EBI bulls, as these are the ones that are most widely used?

In Table 1, we take a look at the 10 most widely used AI bulls in 2018, based on ICBF published data.

Just two of the 10 bulls had a daughter proof in 2018 – the remainder were all genomic. It takes a long time to generate a reliable daughter proof for a bull – reliable milk data is gotten quickly enough once heifers start milking, but reliable fertility data needs time to accumulate.

When the 10 most widely used bulls in 2018 were selected by farmers, their average EBI was €288, with €85 for milk and €142 for fertility

An example of this is Curriheveren Rudolph (PHC). He was daughter proven in 2018, but only for milk and when his daughter proof for fertility was established, his EBI for fertility fell by €43. So, even though a bull may be called daughter proven, some traits will still be based on genomics or parental average.

When the 10 most widely used bulls in 2018 were selected by farmers, their average EBI was €288, with €85 for milk and €142 for fertility.

Fast forward to today, when all these bulls are daughter proven, their average EBI is €199 with €71 for milk and €83 for fertility. This represents a fall of €89 in EBI; €15 drop in milk and €59 drop in fertility.

Does this drop in EBI turn these animals from good bulls into bad bulls? They are certainly not bad bulls, but they are still not the best bulls. For example, the average EBI of the top 10 active milk and fertility daughter proven bulls today is €251. So the most widely used bulls in 2018 have an EBI €52 lower than the best daughter proven bulls today.

Some of the genomic bulls used in 2018 dropped more than others. For example, FR2371 Ardragold Parker EBI is now less than €150. It’s obvious from looking at the table that fertility was being grossly overestimated in these 10 bulls. It is hoped that some of these issues will have been addressed by ICBF when they introduced a cap in autumn 2020 on how much genomics can be relied upon for certain traits.

I don’t see anything wrong with using daughter proven bulls and forfeiting some of the gain, on paper at least, of EBI

So, past performance of the most widely used genomic bulls has not been great – it has failed to deliver on what was promised. Hopefully, more data in the DNA training population will help to ensure that the genomic bulls being used this season will have a more accurate EBI than the bulls most used in 2018. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to definitively know that until 2026 and beyond, when the young genomic bulls used this year will have a daughter proof.

In the meantime, I don’t see anything wrong with using daughter proven bulls and forfeiting some of the gain, on paper at least, of EBI. At the end of the day, we want to breed cows that have a high EBI – we’re not looking to breed calves with a high EBI only for that EBI to drop sharply when they start milking or end up with much poorer fertility than their genomic proof suggested.

Important traits

Recent changes to the nitrates action programme around the banding of organic nitrogen have vindicated previous criticism of high milk volume bulls being promoted by AI companies, and indeed the ICBF through the sire advice programme. It is now acknowledged in legislation that high volume cows excrete more nitrogen.

Aside from overall EBI and the EBI of sub-indices, farmers must look at the individual traits when choosing a bull

Furthermore, high milk volume cows add to peak milk supply without directly adding to peak milk solids – a major issue for thousands of farmers in the Glanbia and now Lakeland catchments.

Aside from overall EBI and the EBI of sub-indices, farmers must look at the individual traits when choosing a bull. These traits determine the direction of travel of the herd. Small changes over many years will lead to big changes at herd level.

The following are some key traits that farmers need to keep an eye on;

  • Producing more than 6,500kg of milk per cow will put farmers in the top band for organic nitrogen per hectare. This means the maximum overall farm stocking rate, for those in derogation, will drop to 2.35 cows/ha. This could have a very significant impact on farm profit. When picking bulls, look at the herd predicted difference (PD).If you want the herd or individual cows to produce more or less volume, then choose bulls with more or less volume than the herd or cow PD for volume.
  • Fertility is hugely important, but calving interval, as a measure, is not the best indicator of good fertility because cows that calve consistently in February are not rewarded as well as cows that calve in April one year and March the next. It is expected that ICBF will change to a predicted six week calving rate trait later this year. This has already happened in New Zealand. In the meantime, calving interval is a good proxy for good fertility.
  • Percentages are more important than kilos. Using moderate milk volume bulls (close to 0kg milk) but very high fat and protein percentage bulls (minimum 0.30% fat and 0.20% protein) will lead to good gains in milk solids without creeping into high volume territory that’s expensive to produce and you get penalised in milk price and nitrates.
  • The maintenance and beef value of the national dairy herd is a contentious subject. High EBI for maintenance results in smaller cows and lower EBI for beef. There is real efficiency to be gained from breeding smaller cows with high output, as maintenance costs are less. The flip side to this is that calf size can be compromised with small animals. Using sexed semen and high beef merit bulls on non-replacements will improve the beef merits of calves. Make sure the maintenance values for bulls aligns with the size of cow that you want. Many farmers are sleepwalking into much larger cows than they want or can afford to have.