The most used sires to date in 2025 on dairy farms has been revealed by the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF).

The breeding season is well and truly over for the spring calving herds, and autumn calving herds now may be interested in what sires are proving the most popular this year before breeding in December.

It might be interesting to see how these sires fair out when the Economic Breeding Index (EBI) changes are brought into play at some stage this month.

One thing that was obvious from the 2025 breeding season and is evident in the top 20 dairy bulls used so far this year was the strong emphasis on bulls that are positive on milk.

Dairy sires

There still seems to be a strong focus on milk solid percentages, but many artificial insemination (AI) companies had stated earlier this year that there is certainly more of a focus on milk kilos this year, which in turn drives on solids production.

Below is a list of the top 20 dairy sires with the most serves recorded to date in 2025, ranked from top to bottom:

No. of serves	AI Code	Bull Name	EBI	Milk	Fertility	Milk kg	Fat kg	Prot kg	F and P kg	Fat %	Prot %
33,517	FR8709	(IG)OLCASTLETOWN MOJO	€374	€115	€168	-30	20.6	11.8	32.4	0.38	0.22
33,141	FR7929	(IG)TANKARDSROCK TEAK	€287	€104	€109	205	20.1	13.8	33.9	0.20	0.12
19,852	FR9842	(IG)BALLYDEHOB RINGO	€322	€110	€130	145	22	13.2	35.2	0.28	0.14
19,556	FR1185	(IG)KILLAVALLA LINESMAN	€323	€135	€146	116	22.8	16.7	39.4	0.31	0.22
17,082	FR9016	(IG)TINNAKILL GRANDSLAM	€342	€123	€124	70	18.2	15.6	33.7	0.27	0.23
16,267	FR8658	(IG)TUOHY HISTORIC	€321	€121	€134	173	17.5	17.1	34.6	0.18	0.19
13,624	FR9816	LAHARN BRUNO	€348	€107	€161	16	16.8	12.5	29.3	0.28	0.21
13,500	FR9848	(IG)KILLALOUGH KAOLIN SRM	€310	€131	€121	46	23.0	14.8	37.8	0.37	0.23
13,107	FR9289	(IG) JOHNSWELL RORY	€320	€128	€126	323	23.7	18.3	41.9	0.18	0.12
11,762	FR9034	(IG)OLCASTLETOWN CAPTAIN SRM	€319	€110	€143	52	20.5	12.2	32.7	0.32	0.18
11,345	FR5816	(IG)CLOONIGNEY PINATUBO	€323	€122	€111	120	22.1	14.8	37.0	0.30	0.18
10,658	FR8466	(IG)DERRYMELEEN EXUDE SRM	€347	€111	€145	64	22.8	11.8	34.6	0.35	0.17
10,009	FR9358	CLOCHRUA MESSI	€318	€130	€116	31	20.0	15.6	35.5	0.33	0.25
9,066	FR9001	(IG)DOONMANAGH PAULSON	€310	€115	€132	83	18.2	14.5	32.6	0.26	0.20
8,331	FR9148	(IG)CLOONIGNEY LOBSTER	€299	€118	€119	124	22.5	14.0	36.6	0.30	0.17
8,029	FR1194	(IG)SULAN QUEST	€321	€118	€133	136	21.8	14.5	36.2	0.28	0.17
7,883	FR9316	(IG)DUNGRANGE DAN	€291	€117	€121	212	24.6	14.5	39.1	0.27	0.12
7,542	FR8893	GLENABOY ALLSTAR SRM	€349	€121	€141	24	19.8	13.9	33.7	0.33	0.23
7,517	FR5857	OLCASTLETOWN TIERNAN	€273	€124	€95	170	22.0	15.9	37.9	0.26	0.17
7,493	FR8388	(IG) KNOCKSOUNA SWOOP	€327	€112	€160	104	18.3	14.2	32.5	0.24	0.18

Out of the 20 top bulls used this year, only one bull had a negative milk kg figure, highlighting the emphasis for milk this year, and only one bull was slightly below the 30kg of accumulative fat and protein kg.

The results are based on the analysis of insemination data collected from AI technicians linked to the ICBF database, through their AI handheld system.

The number one most used dairy bull this year is FR8709 (IG)Olcastletown Mojo with 33,517 serves recorded

The second most used bull dairy bull this year is FR7929 (IG) Tankardsrock Teak, with 33,141 serves recorded.

To date in 2025, 734,120 dairy AI serves have been recorded which is a huge increase in the number of dairy AI serves in 2024 and should aid in recovering the number of replacement dairy heifers on the ground.

The dairy AI usage this year will recover the number of dairy heifer calves born on farm for the spring of 2026 back to 2021 levels due to overall dairy AI usage and in particular the increased uptake of sexed semen, which does not require the same number of straws per heifer calf born.

Beef bulls used on dairy herd

With the increased usage of dairy AI on the dairy herd and in particular the increased uptake of sexed semen usage, there has been a slight dip in the number of beef serves to the dairy herd, but numbers still remains above 2023 levels.

Below is a list of the top 15 beef sires used in the dairy herd, with the most serves recorded to date in 2025, ranked from top to bottom:

No. of serves	AI code	Bull name	Breed	DBI	DBI – Calving	DBI – Beef	DBI – Carbon	Carcass Weight	Gestation – Days
46,669	AA6682	HW LORD HORATIO V538	AA	€150	€42	€99	€8	11.5	-2.6
23,505	HE9382	GOULDINGPOLL 1 NIJINSKY PP	HE	€110	€9	€95	€6	6.5	-0.8
18,678	AA4089	INTELAGRI MATTEO E.T. (ET)	AA	€176	€62	€104	€10	9.7	-3.9
18,321	AA9607	SHANAWAY VENGABUS	AA	€196	€59	€128	€9	19.1	-4.5
17,584	AA4631	GABRIEL PAT 1949	AA	€163	€52	€101	€10	10.8	-3.0
17,468	AA8472	TUBRIDMORE TWOMEY ET	AA	€163	€51	€102	€10	9.8	-3.5
17,248	AA7506	TOWER TOMMIE	AA	€168	€51	€108	€9	10.0	-3.5
15,343	AA4743	KEALKIL PRIME LAD	AA	€175	€65	€98	€11	2.0	-3.5
12,858	AA9860	WESTELLEN BOSS Y929	AA	€176	€51	€120	€6	20.4	-2.7
10,414	BB8496	STEF VD BLOMSTEEG	BB	€150	-€9	€162	-€3	23.6	-0.9
9,937	BB9373	ENLEVE DU BOIS DESNEUX	BB	€159	€11	€152	-€4	19.9	-1.7
9,316	HE5455	BARWISE 1 RICOCHET PP	HE	€151	€46	€94	€10	0.7	-2.4
9,056	HE7545	SKEHANORE FRUITFUL	HE	€104	€28	€70	€6	-0.9	-1.1
8,540	BB7221	QUARRY BANK MONEYMAN	BB	€170	€32	€141	-€4	17.6	-2.1
8,331	AA4235	GABRIEL MOSSY 1727	AA	€153	€50	€94	€8	6.1	-2.4
8,260	AA1154	BLACKHAUGH PHILO X239	AA	€173	€36	€133	€4	23.8	-1.4
7,851	BB9460	BBG ELK 2341 DE BOULOGNE	BB	€163	€30	€136	-€3	17.2	-2.0
7,214	CH6490	ORBI	CH	€127	-€27	€165	-€12	35.3	2.2
7,093	HE8511	INTELAGRI 1 GOLD RUSH ET PH	HE	€110	€1	€103	€6	10.8	-1.4
6,921	AA1506	CARROWBOY VEGAS 2	AA	€153	€31	€119	€2	17.6	-0.4

The number one most used beef bull in dairy herds this year is AA6682- Hw Lord Horatio V538, with 46,669 serves recorded.

The second most used beef bull in dairy herds this year is HE9382 – Gouldingpoll 1 Nijinsky PP, with 23,505 serves recorded.

Dairy sires

Beef bulls used on dairy herd

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