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As reported on page 58, publication by ICBF of the Active Bull List has been delayed this year, as they are awaiting new proofs for young bulls. Not having the Active Bull List available is like going back in time, to when bulls were picked based on the information in the sales catalogue.
While the catalogues provide a useful reference point, you must keep in mind that they are a marketing tool by the AI companies to help sell product. Although, to be fair, it is usually the high-EBI bulls that occupy most of the prime space near the front, with the bigger pictures.
So don’t be swayed by pictures – or what the text in the catalogue says. Breeding decisions must be based on the numbers, and this is why the Active Bull List is so useful.
So what numbers are important? The key thing for me is to pick animals based on their EBI. The EBI for a bull is the sum total of the seven traits his proof is based on.
These traits are milk production (33%), fertility (35%), calving (9%), maintenance (7%), beef (9%), health (3%), and management (4%).
The weighting that each of these traits has is based on their contribution to profit on a spring-calving dairy farm, as determined by Teagasc models.
That’s why milk production and fertility have the highest weighting, as they make a huge contribution to profit.
Other information, such as type and conformation, is available also – but these have only a very small bearing on profitability, so most farmers would generally overlook type traits when picking bulls.
However, udder conformation can have a big bearing on milking, but, generally speaking, the difference in udder conformation between the high-EBI bulls is small, with very little variation. Farmers should focus on picking bulls that will produce cows that consistently deliver in the bulk tank – not the show ring.
The highest-EBI bulls available this year were born last spring. Ten years ago, these young test bulls would be pushed towards the back of the catalogue and sold at a discount, to encourage farmers to use some of them.
Now, they are the heavy hitters and their semen is in high demand because they have the highest EBI. The catalyst for this change has been genomics, because it has dramatically increased the reliability of these bulls.
Before genomics, they would have had a reliability of below 30% on their parent average, but with genomics their reliability increases to over 50%.
Some of the 2016 crop of bulls are available through the Gene Ireland programme, while others can be acquired through the AI companies themselves. The big drawback with these bulls is that they don’t have a calving proof. Calving proofs are now becoming available on the 2015 crop of bulls and these will be fed into the Active Bull List when published.
So what is on offer from the main AI companies?
Because the highest-EBI bulls are very young, there are question marks around their ability to produce viable sperm. Therefore, it’s hard to know whether or not they will be available.
These two companies join forces under the NCBC banner with the same bulls available from both companies. Nextgen Candy is the highest-EBI bull on offer from NCBC with an EBI of €328, with €66 in the milk sub index and €212 in the fertility sub index. Candy is a 2015-born bull, so his semen availability shouldn’t be a problem.
NCBC has young bulls enrolled in the Gene Ireland programme but these do not feature in the main catalogue, because it says their availability will be scarce and what straws are available will probably be used on its contract mating herds. The highest of these is Nextgen Action with an EBI of €331. Nextgen is the prefix to the Next Generation herd owned by Teagasc Moorepark. This herd provides three of the top four bulls in the Gene Ireland programme.
For heifers, the highest-EBI bull with less than 2% calving difficulty and high reliability in the catalogues is Clohane Vandike, with a calving difficulty of 1.6%, a reliability of 92% and an EBI of €272.
The highest EBI bull in the Tipperary-based AI station this year is Parkduv Falcon, bred by Kevin Downing in Cork. FR4100 has an EBI of €328 with €77 for milk sub index and €198 for fertility.
Falcon was born on 1 February 2016, so he is still very young and semen availability is limited. He is in the Gene Ireland programme.
In terms of bulls with a high reliability for calving ease, SEW leads the way, with a calving difficulty of 1.3% and reliability of 99%.
When it comes to daughter-proven bulls in Dovea, Deansgrove Argent heads up the team with an EBI of €237 and a reliability of 70%.
This Limerick-based family run business has teamed up with Forge Genetics to offer farmers higher EBI bulls. Forge Genetics is an AI company that is the brainchild of the Forge discussion group of farmers from across Munster. The bulls on offer are nearly all bred on the members’ farms and they offer semen at lower prices. Their highest-EBI bull this year is Nextgen Galway FR4203, at €314, with €53 for milk sub index and €204 for fertility sub index. Velvetstown Madrid is their highest-EBI daughter-proven bull available, at €203.
LIC has largely stayed away from the use of genomics, so the average EBI of their bulls is that bit less than their competitors.
Because most of their bulls have come through the New Zealand testing programme, their EBI is based on an Interbull conversion, so their reliability is that bit lower also, until Irish daughters start milking. Their highest-EBI bull is Wearnes Te Poi WFP, at €202. He is daughter-proven in New Zealand. For an easy-calving bull, the highest-EBI bull available on the LIC catalogue is Ashdale Kelsbells AKK with a calving difficulty of 1.7% and a reliability of 84%. When it comes to purebred Jerseys, LIC’s OKT has an EBI of €192 and a reliability of 69% This is slightly behind NCBC’s bull JE4153, who has an EBI of €199 but a reliability of only 22%.
The highest EBI bull in the Eurogene catalogue is Oakfarm Playboy, who is also in the Gene Ireland programme. He has an EBI of €326 with a milk sub index of €75 and a fertility sub index of €200, but like all bulls in the Gene Ireland programme he doesn’t have a calving proof. When it comes to daughter-proven bulls, Lucky Whistler WLY tops the list at €235. The highest EBI bull in Eurogene with a calving difficulty of less than 2% is Alfie at €272.
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