The Irish Limousin Society is trialling the use of a number of Limousin bulls in dairy herds with cows calving this spring.

The bulls have been identified as easy-calving and short gestation. Ideally, they should deliver Limousin-cross heifers suitable the suckler replacement market.

This initiative is aimed at giving dairy farmers the confidence to use Limousin genes in their beef crossing programmes.

According to the society, demand for this replacement heifer far exceed the supply.

The bulls were primarily selected based on French research and the Irish Limousin Society wants to see if the figures stand up in an Irish herd. The society subsidised the cost of the bulls in the trial herds last summer. About 20 straws were allocated per herd and first calves are expected to be born in the coming weeks.

The bulls being tested include Hauteclair HCA and Achile AHZ (both with straws in the National Cattle Breeding Centre), Anecdote ACN and Chaumeil S1427. This last bull is listed with a calving difficulty rating of less than 1%.

Detailed trials at Teagasc Grange have consistently shown that the Limousin-cross Friesian is the most profitable suckler dam. On the ground, the Limousin-cross is the most populous.

But there has been no initiative by Teagasc or the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) to either stimulate the supply of this cross, or to research the optimum approach to breeding.

Instead, the ICBF and Teagasc have opted to push all the effort and funding into a maternal programme based on producing replacements from within the suckler herd.

While it is a given that dairy farmers will prioritise easy calving and short gestation in crossing sires, information is needed on other aspects of using Limousin bulls in dairy herds, such as muscling skeletal shape, etc.

Meanwhile, the Limousin Society is holding one of its biggest ever premier bull show and sales at Roscrea Mart this Saturday, 28 February, with 140 bulls catalogued. Society secretary, Paul Sykes, says that advance enquiries ahead of the sale include quite a number of catalogue requests from dairy farmers. The judge in Roscrea will be Owain Llyr from Wales.

Progressive Genetics boss to retire

The chief executive of Progressive Genetics Co-op (PG), Denis Guilfoyle, has informed the board and staff of his intention to retire early this summer. Guilfoyle joined PG from Deloitte in 1995, when the newly formed co-op took over the AI and milk recording business operated by the former Dublin District Milk Board.

In his low-key efficient style, he has grown the co-op steadily and helped rationalise Ireland’s AI network over the past 20 years. At last year’s AGM, shareholders were told that a £1 investment in PG in 1995 was worth €2.80 then.

On the AI side, PG purchased North Eastern Cattle Breeders in 2001 and amalgamated with the North Western Cattle Breeding Society in Sligo two years later. In 2005, PG and the AI stations across Munster established the National Cattle Breeding Centre, in a major rationalisation of the country’s co-op-owned AI network.

PG has also been a key player in milk recording. The laboratories were transferred from Bluebell to Enfield and a partnership link was established with National Milk Records in Britain. Today, PG’s milk laboratory business offers disease and pregnancy testing on milk samples, and is also used to test for milk payments by Fane Valley and Ballynashane creameries in the north, and by Lakeland’s Co-op in the south.

In its most recently published accounts for 2013, PG recorded a turnover of €10.7m and an operating profit of €439,000 The addition of profits from its associates – the National Cattle Breeding Centre (NCBC) and Independent Milk Laboratories (IML) – of €227,000, left the society with a profit before tax and interest of €665,000.

Guilfoyle told the Irish Farmers Journal that 2014 saw good growth in PG, with DIY semen sales up 12% and a 7% increase in AI. He added that over 50% of the cows in the PG area are now being milk recorded.

136 bulls sold

The final breed to go through the rings at last week’s spring bulls sale in Stirling, Scotland, was the Charolais and it returned the highest breed average. There were 136 bulls sold to a top of 18,000gns. The average at £6,821 (€9,095) was up £283 on last year.

Balmoral bull sales

The former site of the Balmoral Show in King’s Hall, Belfast, will host the inaugural spring Balmoral bull sale on 28 February. The catalogue includes 130 animals across 10 beef breeds. The old showground centre is well prepared to house this many animals.

Nutrition in bulls

Trials at Teagasc Grange indicate that a high level of nutrition from three to five months of age promotes earlier puberty in young bulls. The work, which is being supported by ICBF and the AI stations, will help promote earlier collection of promising young Holstein Friesian bulls that have been identified by genomic testing.