The Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) is set to launch a new culling index next week. The index is called COW (Cow’s Own Worth) and effectively is a new decision support tool to that was developed to help dairy farmers in making informed decisions on what cows to cull and what cows to retain in the herd.
The Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) is set to launch a new culling index next week.
The index is called COW (Cow’s Own Worth) and effectively is a new decision support tool to that was developed to help dairy farmers in making informed decisions on what cows to cull and what cows to retain in the herd.
Margaret Kelleher from ICBF said: “The COW combines multiple sources of information to identify the expected profit potential for the remainder of every dairy female’s life.”
Ranking
The COW index ranks females using genetic merit, cow parity, most recent calving date, and predicted calving date.
Farmers can quickly identify under-performing females. The COW was developed and validated by Teagasc Moorepark. Visit icbf.com for more.
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: