The top dairy sires for the 2023 spring-calving breeding season have been revealed by the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF).
The list contains the top 20 sires with the most serves recorded during the first six months of the year (January 1 – June 30).
The results are based on the analysis of insemination data collected from AI technicians linked to the ICBF database, through their AI handheld system.
Top dairy sires
There were a total of 537,154 dairy serves recorded on handhelds during the first six months of the year, with the top 20 bulls accounting for 35% of the total dairy serves recorded on handhelds.
The top sire on the list is (IG)Aghernbridge Milton (FR8403), with 20,270 handheld serves recorded.
He is a National Cattle Breeding Centre (NCBC) sire, with an economic breeding index (EBI) of €340 – with a milk sub-index of €117 and a fertility sub-index of €153.
The second most used bull dairy bull this year is (IG)Tankardsrock Teak (FR7929), with 17,697 handheld serves recorded.
He is a NCBC sire, with an EBI of €355 – with a milk sub-index of €114 and a fertility sub-index of €153.
Source: ICBF
The third most used bull dairy bull this year is (IG)Knockenright Chessman (FR6853), with 12,678 handheld serves recorded.
He is a NCBC sire, with an EBI of €291 – with a milk sub-index of €109 and a fertility sub-index of €126.
Out of the top 20 most used dairy bulls, 17 of them were tested through the Dairy Gene Ireland breeding programme.
Moving to the breeds, Holstein is the number one used breed – with 482,674 handheld serves recorded – with 1,003 Holstein bulls used.
The breed accounts for 90% of the total handheld serves recorded.
Friesian is the second most used breed, with 20,192 handheld serves recorded.
The breed accounts for 3.7% of the total handheld serves recorded – with 109 bulls used.
Source: ICBF
Jersey is the third most used breed, with 19,033 handheld serves recorded, which accounts for 3.5% of the total handheld serves recorded with 150 Jersey bulls used.
In total, there were 1,525 dairy bulls recorded on handhelds during the first six months of the year.
Dairy beef
Beef sires being using on the dairy herd continues to grow year-on-year; there was a total of 322,782 beef serves recorded on dairy cows from AI handhelds during the first six months of the year.
Angus is the number one most used beef breed in dairy herds, with 163,591 handheld serves recorded.
Hereford is the second most used beef breed in dairy herds, with 75,066 handheld serves recorded.
Source: ICBF
Belgian Blue is the third most used beef breed in dairy herds, with 40,405 handheld serves recorded.
In total there was 653 beef bulls recorded on AI handhelds that were used in dairy herds during the first six months of the year.
The number one most used beef bull in dairy herds this year was HW Lord Horatio V538 (AA6682), with 26,022 handheld serves recorded.
Image source: Progressive Genetics
He is a NCBC sire and has a dairy beef index (DBI) of €157, with a calving difficult of 3.15% on cows and 8.76% on heifers.
Source: ICBF
The second most used beef bull in dairy herds this year was Gabriel Pat 1949 (AA4631), with 23,865 handheld serves recorded.
He is a NCBC sire and has a dairy beef index (DBI) of €162, with a calving difficult of 2.62% on cows and 7.34% on heifers.
Image: Progressive Genetics
The third most used beef bull in dairy herds this year was Goulding Poll 1 Zoro (HE6841), with 21,006 handheld serves recorded.
He is a NCBC sire and has a dairy beef index (DBI) of €121, with a calving difficult of 3.01% on cows and 7.79% on heifers.
The first continental sire is BBG ELK 236 DE Boulogne (BB7278), with 10,229 handheld serves recorded.
He is a NCBC sire and has a dairy beef index (DBI) of €117, with a calving difficult of 6.34% on cows and 12.73% on heifers.