In 2017, there were around 3.15 million individual searches for sires recorded on the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation’s (ICBF’s) animal search facility.
But, which sires were searched for the most in the past 12 months?
The ICBF has broken down a list of the 10 most searched sires in 2017 for both beef and dairy.
With regards to beef sires, there was a total of 2,137,100 searches conducted last year on the ICBF’s tool.
A Limousin bull, named CASTLEVIEW GAZELLE (ZAG), came out on top – with a total of 17,287 searches.
CASTLEVIEW GAZELLE (ZAG) Image source: ICBF
ELDERBERRY GALAHAD (EBY) – another Limousin bull – came in second with 9,723 searches, while FISTON (FSZ) – a Charolais bull – rounded out the top three with 9,630 searches.
The top 10 most searched list was dominated by Limousin bulls, with this breed taking up six of the available slots. The remaining positions were taken by two Charolais bulls, an Aberdeen Angus sire and a Salers bull.
Top 10 most searched beef sires 2017. Image source: ICBF
Meanwhile, there were just over 1 million searches carried out for dairy sires in 2017 on the ICBF animal search facility. Holstein bulls took charge of the entire list of the top 10 most searched dairy sires for the past 12 months.
SEAROAD AWS PAMELA 1 (SEW) was the most searched dairy sire in the year just gone, with a total of 7,349 searches.
SEAROAD AWS PAMELA 1 (SEW) Image source: ICBF
(IG) NEXTGEN YKG CANDY 593 (FR2385) came in next with 5,039 searches and COOLNASOON ART (FR2249) finished in third with 4,532 searches.
The ICBF also indicated that the number of stock bulls searched for on its animal search facility was very high, making up 49% of the total male searches recorded on the tool last year.
The animal search facility gives a full breakdown of each bull’s breeding potential – including: index; reliability; progeny; and ancestry performance information, as well as a host of other useful information for selecting a stock bull, the ICBF explained.