With the breeding season just around the corner for the spring-calving dairy herds, farmers have been advised to carefully think about the value of the offspring.
The breeding choices farmers will make over the next few weeks will have a major impact on calf quality and calf marketability next spring, a leading dairy advisor has said.
Speaking at a Lakeland Dairies / Teagasc Joint Programme Breeding event in Longford last night (Thursday, March 28), Michael Monahan, along with Owen McPartlan from the Joint Programme, said that as well as picking a team of dairy bulls, farmers should closely examine the Dairy Beef Index (DBI) too with beef farmers more concerned about calf quality.
Michael Monahan said the days of just picking artificial insemination (AI) straws on gestation length are over.
“We need to be thinking about the calf that is coming off the cow, especially for dairy beef. It’s a whole new world out there now and we have to make smart, sensible choices,” Monahan said.
“The reality is that it’s not just about getting a calf. There needs to be that quality in there, there needs to be good beef traits for the calf rearer of beef farmer to work with.
“We can’t just be thinking about going for a crazy short gestation and not consider the next farmer. We all have to be working together.
“Because, in reality, if it’s not a calf that a farmer can make a profit out of, then the dairy farmer will be stuck with that calf,” he added.
Selecting for breeding
When selecting bulls on the DBI, Monahan advised farmers to look at “calving difficulty, gestation length and then focus on carcass weight and conformation”.
He also dismissed the notion that a beef bull with a high DBI rating means that it will be difficult calving.
“You’re getting good bulls with carcass and conformation with a calving difficulty at 4% so they are there,” he added.
‘No reason to run beef bulls with the heifers’
At the same meeting, Michael Monahan said farmers should do all they can to avoid using stock bulls even on maiden heifers on out farms or land away from the block.
“There’s absolutely no reason to run a beef bull with the heifers,” He continued.
With a well-planned fixed AI programme, the need to run a beef bull is eliminated he explained.
“There were situations where a farmer would be going to an out block four or five times a day on heat detection,” he said.
“If you have a fixed AI programme in place, this means that you don’t need to be doing this and it also means that (a beef bull) is a no-no from me to be doing this.”
Both McPartlan and Monahan spoke at length on the benefits of the Economic Breeding Index (EBI), however warned that it is not just about the bulls with the highest figures.
“It’s about matching the cows you have with the best bulls that suit each cow,” McPartlan said.
“Sometimes the highest EBI will not be the best for a particular cow. You need to sit down and match the bulls with the needs of the cows. When you do that, you have profitable calves.”