A new carbon breeding index, based on the carbon footprint of dairy cows is going to be integrated into the economic breeding index (EBI) later this year.

Speaking at the Irish Grassland Association dairy conference on Wednesday, Donagh Berry from Teagasc said that the carbon footprint of dairy cows is closely correlated to EBI.

“As the EBI has evolved over the last 20 years, there has been a 14% reduction in the carbon footprint per kilo of fat and protein corrected milk,” Berry said.

Milk traits

Introducing a new trait into the EBI means reducing the weighting of another or other traits.

Berry said that the weighting on the milk sub-index is going to decrease when carbon is introduced.

Other changes to the EBI are also being implemented for the next evaluation run on 21 January.

From now on, actual liveweight data from cows will be used to calculate the maintenance sub-index

These include revised genomic proofs based on a larger training population, genomic proofs for breeds other than Holstein Friesian and changes to the way the maintenance sub-index is calculated.

From now on, actual liveweight data from cows will be used to calculate the maintenance sub-index, which the ICBF says is more accurate.

However, it is likely to result in a drop of approximately €10 in EBI for lighter dairy breeds.

Changes are also being made to the way calving difficulty will be communicated to farmers.

Now, calving difficulty will be broken down based on whether the female is dairy or beef and whether she is a heifer or cow.