FBD Trust has committed to providing a financial grant of €200,000 over the next four years to support further research into Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) at Teagasc, Moorepark.
The dairy and beef sectors are facing increased scrutiny regarding the environmental footprint of milk and beef production and the welfare status of male dairy calves.
ARTs can be harnessed to help address both of these issues and significantly increase the overall value of the dairy calf crop.
Accelerating genetic gain can improve the efficiency of milk and beef production, and facilitate the incorporation of new environmental traits into dairy and beef breeding indexes.
Furthermore, by using sexed-semen straws to generate dairy replacements, instead of conventional semen straws, this increases the likelihood of a heifer calf pregnancy from 50% to 90%.
This allows farmers to select their best dams to inseminate with sexed-semen and replace the majority of male dairy calves with high dairy beef index (DBI) beef-cross calves.
Art laboratory
Commenting on the progress of the ART laboratory established in Teagasc, Moorepark last year, Michael Berkery, chairman of the FBD Trust, said: “FBD is delighted with its immense commercial potential for the dairy and beef industries.
“The sexed-semen laboratory operated by ‘Sexing Technologies’ was commissioned and officially approved in October 2021, and commenced the commercial production of sexed-semen straws at the start of November.”
The laboratory operates 24-hours/day and produces approximately 5,000 sex-sorted semen straws/week, which will be available for use in the 2022 breeding season.
Commercialising the availability of sexed-semen will greatly contribute to the sustainability of both Irish dairy and beef industries.
Berkery particularly welcomes the fact that all major artificial insemination (AI) companies with bull studs in Ireland are now offering sexed-semen to farmers which is produced at the sexed-semen laboratory in Teagasc, Moorepark.
The Teagasc, Moorepark facilities have helped stimulate a marked increase in the availability of sexed-semen for the 2022 breeding season which will make it easier for farmers to select a large team of high EBI bulls to generate their dairy replacements. This will increase the value of the calf crop from the dairy herd.
The establishment of the long-desired sexed-semen laboratory in Ireland by a world-leading technology innovator Sexing Technologies is thanks to the leadership of Dr. Stephen Butler and his team in Teagasc, Moorepark.
Dr. Butler said: “Sexed-semen generates faster genetic improvement by allowing producers to breed their best cows and heifers to genetically elite sires and create their next generation of replacements.
“Producers who utilise genomic testing can more easily identify their top genetic merit animals, which they can breed with sexed-semen, and their animals with lesser genetic merit can be inseminated with a beef breed to produce a more valuable calf.”
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