Beef straws account for 50% of all AI straws sold, Donal Santry, chair of Shinagh Estates and Munster Bovine, explained at Teagasc’s dairy-beef open day in Fethard last Wednesday.

It is the increased use of sexed semen in dairy herds that is both allowing more beef AI usage and driving the increase.

The use of sexed semen has been increasing on a gradual scale for the last two years, Santry said.

“At this stage everyone has bought into it so well and the market is leading the way, and it’s a growing trend,” Santry said.

Roughly 5,000 farmers in total are using sexed semen, with 300,000 straws used this year, Pat Dillon head of research with Teagasc said during the panel discussion last week.

Dairy farmers are now well convinced, he said, that sexed semen is working and while there has been a huge increase in the last two years, the aim is to double it.