The new carbon sub-index was launched earlier this week at Corrin Mart, along with a number of other changes to the economic breeding index (EBI).
The new updates to the EBI have come about from extensive research and collaboration between Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF), Teagasc, VistaMilk and AbacusBio.
The new updates to the EBI will be available on the release of the next genetic evaluation which will be release on next Tuesday, November 22, 2022.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue, speaking at the launch of the carbon sub-index, said: “It’s a historic day and a real milestone in the continued development of livestock breeding across Ireland, and particularly in the context of delivering on agriculture’s commitment to climate change [mitigation].”
Commenting further, he said: “This index is a world’s first, and highlights that Irish farmers are leading the way in terms of their commitment to climate action.”
Carbon sub-index
The new carbon sub-index was launched earlier this week, with the new sub-index accounting for 10% of the total EBI.
This update to the EBI will make it 55% more efficient at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The new carbon sub-index will see all traits have an emission value associated with them. Some traits will increase emissions, while others will decrease emissions.
Traits that increase feed intake and production from cows will have higher levels of emissions associated with them.
Where traits that allow the animal to be more efficient without the need for extra feed will see decreased emission associated with them.
Beef
There was also a number of updates to the beef sub-index within the EBI, with its overall weighting increased by 2% to now account for 10% in total.
There have been three main changes to the beef sub-index within the EBI, with the inclusion of an age of slaughter trait, in-spec carcass traits and economic value updates.
All of these have been developed to improve the beef trait within the dairy herd and thus the calves coming from the national dairy herd.
Health
The changes to the health index include the move away from the current predicted 305-day somatic cell count (SCC), towards the Test Day Model (TDM) approach for genetic evaluation of SCC.
Its impact on the overall EBI on average will be +€3 for artificial insemination (AI) sires and +€2 for cows.
The TDM uses an every test-day record on each cow, rather than the previous 305-day model which used a standard lactation curve for each cow regardless of the number of milk recordings throughout the year.
The TDM is better able to account for environmental factors on the day of the milk recording, such as weather, feed levels and grass quality.
The other change within the health sub-index in is relation to bovine tuberculosis (TB). It had been a standalone trait since 2019 but it will now be in the health sub-index.
Research from ICBF has shown that by including TB in the health sub-index (with a relative index of 5%) it will lead to a reduced prevalence within the national herd.
Rather than the current trend which shows a growth in the amount of TB cases within the national herd.
Minor breeds
Another ten breeds are to be added to the dairy genomic evaluation; there are currently only seven breeds included.
The breeds that will be added are:
- Brown Swiss;
- Fleckvieh;
- Mri;
- Shorthorn;
- Swedish Red;
- Kerry;
- Normande;
- Rotbunt;
- Danish Red;
- Milking Shorthorn.
This will mean that an extra 5,000 animals will be able to receive a genomic evaluation.
EBI
The addition of the new index will mean that the weighting for the existing indexes will decrease.
The largest decrease is in the fertility index, which will decrease by 9% from 33% to 24%.
The health and beef indexes are the only two existing indexes that will see an increase, with health seeing the most significant increase of 6%.
Sub-index Current EBI Updated EBI Milk 33 31 Fertility 33 24 Carbon 10 Health 4 10 Beef 8 10 Calving 10 7 Management 4 4 Maintenance 8 4
Management is the only index that hasn’t seen a change in contribution to the overall EBI figure.