The use of sexed semen on dairy-bred animals is up by 56% compared to last year, according to Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) data.

In 2022, 95,018 sexed semen straws were used on the dairy herd, and in 2023 this figure rose to 148,731.

The figures also show that sexed semen use on replacement heifers in 2023 was up by 44% compared to 2022.

Last year, a total of 39,292 heifers were served with sexed semen and in 2023, this figure increased to 56,706 head.

However overall, there were fewer dairy sires (-8%) used on dairy cows in 2023 with farmers increasing beef sire use, an increase of 27%.

Beef

In terms of AI use on the beef herd, the number of beef-bred cows bulled using AI was up by 5% in 2023.

In 2023 there were 124,489 straws used on beef-bred cows, and while it was up on 2022 (118,567), it was down on the number of serves in 2021 (129,164).

There were a total of 281 beef sexed semen straws used on beef bred heifers this year compared to just 93 in 2022.

Conventional beef straws used on beef-bred heifers also increased by over 6% this year.

Empty rates

Myles McDermot, a scanner from Co Carlow who scans dairy cows all around the country, said that empty rates are on average 15% this year, much higher than last year.

“Some farmers are doing OK and are in single figure digits in terms of empty rates, but most of them are around 15%.

“I think it’s largely down to the variable growth patterns which led to stressful conditions for cows.

“On top of that you had a situation where milk price dropped significantly and some farmers fed less, whic?h put a greater dependency on grass, which probably wasn’t as good quality as it was last year.

John Guinan a scanner from Lorrha in Co Tipperary said that while empty rates are higher than last year in general on dairy farms, heifer empty rates were also high.

“They’re not as good as other years from what I can see, This week I scanned two very good dairy herds and there was 23 out of 170 cows empty in one, and 15 out of 118 cows empty in the other.

“I scanned a bundle of 40 heifers for another man and eight of them were empty, that’s 20%,” he said.