The Teagasc Dairy Breeding Week events started on Monday (March 20), with the first of the in-person events taking place in Westmeath.
Monday’s event was hosted by Lakeland Dairies and attendees heard from speakers Dr. Joe Patton, head of dairy knowledge transfer with Teagasc; Owen McPartland from Teagasc; and Susan Casey and Michael Monahan from Lakeland Dairies.
Breeding week
Owen McPartland from Teagasc spoke first at the event and discussed how Lakeland suppliers compare to the three largest co-ops based in the southern part of the country.
McPartland then outlined the improvements made by Lakeland suppliers since 2016, with great progress being made by farmers.
In 2022, Lakeland suppliers average 427kg of milk solids (ms), compared to 428kg of ms in the three southern based co-ops.
In 2016 this figure was 369kg of ms, compared to 373kg of ms for the three southern co-ops.
Since 2016, Lakeland suppliers have added on average 58kg of ms supplied to the co-op, while the three southern co-ops have added 55kg of ms.
Looking at the fertility data, the average calving interval for Lakeland is 399, compared to 387 for the three southern co-ops.
The six-week calving rate is 9% behind, artificial insemination (AI) bred replacement is 5% behind and heifers calved at two-years-old is 10%, compared to the three southern co-ops.
Lakelands 2016 Three co-ops 2016 Lakelands 2022 Three co-ops 2022 Lakeland gains Three co-ops gains Calving interval 405 390 399 387 -6 -3 Six-week calving rate 48% 60% 58% 67% 10% 7% AI bred replacements 50% 61% 58% 63% 8% 2% Heifers calved at two-years-old 41% 59% 62% 72% 21% 14%
Commenting, McPartland said: “We definitely have work to do here, but this isn’t telling the whole story – where have we come from is what I would be focusing on.”
McPartland said that these gains are far greater than the three southern co-ops when used in the comparison.
Targets
Also speaking at the event was Dr. Joe Patton, head of dairy knowledge transfer with Teagasc, who spoke about breeding cows to suit your system.
Patton said that although there are a number of different systems operated by Irish dairy farmers, there is only really one system.
He was referring to the payment system for milk and the fact that although prices are announced in c/L you are being paid for the kg of ms and deducted for volume.
He was advising the farmers at the meeting to focus on increasing the value of their milk by increasing the components.
The farmers present also heard from Michael Monahan on the targets they should aim for in their bull team for breeding in 2023.
Sub-index Team average EBI €300 Fertility €120 Milk €100 Health €5 Carbon Positive Kg’s fat and protein 30kg+ PD fat percentage 0.28 PD protein percentage 0.18
Table: Lakeland Dairies
The crowd in attendance also heard from Susan Casey on the use of sexed semen and the importance of picking the right beef sires.
Casey spoke about the importance of looking at beef sires for their calving difficultly, along with sires that are positive for carcass weight.
Casey highlighted that when dairy farmers are picking beef sires that they should look at how the Dairy Beef Index (DBI) figure is made up and pick the highest quality bulls they can.