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Dairy farmers should be doing more to record sire details on calves. The call was made by Co Carlow beef farmer John Kehoe at the Teagasc beef conference on Tuesday.
He said dairy farmers need to pay attention to what beef genetics they are using on their dairy cows.
Demand
“We haven’t as beef farmers demanded enough from our dairy farming counterparts.
“Cross-breeding and poor sire selection have the potential to erode any margin that may be in dairy beef production.”
Dairy beef index
Kehoe called on the ICBF to introduce a dairy beef index as a matter of urgency to guide and direct dairy farmers as to what beef genetics to use on the dairy herd.
"It’s absolutely criminal that only 45% of beef sired calves form the dairy herd have a sire identified and this is a serious disadvantage to beef farmers," Kehoe said.
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