The use of dairy sire artificial insemination (AI) has declined again this year, while the use of beef breed AI sires has continued to increase.
The figures were outlined by the chief executive officer of the National Cattle Breeding Centre (NCBC) Doreen Corridan at a conference focused on the future of sustainable livestock production, which took place in Co. Laois on Thursday, September 12.
In her presentation titled ‘Trends in Breeding and Irish Genomics’, Corridan detailed the changing profile of the national dairy and suckler herd and also, the changing trends in breeding strategies.
She said that 5,300 dairy herds are now using sexed semen to breed their replacement heifers and 26% of all dairy sire AI serves are sexed.
The NCBC CEO’s presentation detailed that as of August 31 of this year, 49% of all AI serves on dairy cows were to beef sires – up from 26% in 2020.
The table below details AI usage on the dairy herd based on national AI serves for the year to date (August 31):
Year No. AI serves Dairy serves % Dairy serves Beef serves % Beef serves Herds using sexed dairy sexed serves % dairy sexed serves 2020 1,126,215 837,107 74% 289,108 26% 1,641 31,680 4% 2021 1,216,620 942,075 75% 319,545 25% 2,708 63,267 7% 2022 1,260,877 826,866 66% 434,011 34% 3,686 99,952 12% 2023 1,316,905 768,087 58% 548,818 42% 5,141 161,448 21% 2024 1,286,041 662,012 51% 624,029 49% 5,358 175,334 26%
As can be seen from the data in the table above, the number of dairy serves on the dairy herd is decreasing while the amount of beef AI being used on the dairy herd is increasing.
Corridan also outlined that 22% of dairy cows being served with dairy AI are being served with sexed while 45% of dairy AI on dairy heifer serves are with sexed semen.
Looking at dairy beef births by sire breed or the year to date and 53.3% of the 862,249 dairy beef calves born to date this year were Angus sired with 25.9% Hereford sired and 6% Limousin.
The event was hosted by MSD Animal Health and was attended by veterinary professionals and agri industry personnel from across the county.
There were a number of other interesting guest speakers and panelists there on the day discussing a range of issues including sustainability, animal health, on-farm technology and global food industry developments.