According to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF), 73% of inseminations for the first six months of the year were from young genomically-selected bulls – this accounts for over 488,000 inseminations.
However when you look into genomic sires in a little more detail, some questions arise.
Genomically selected bulls
In Irish artificial insemination (AI) stations, four bulls are currently very dominant (IG): Kilfeacle Pivotal (FR4728); (IG) Ballygowen Albert (FR4513); (IG) Lauragh Evert (LHZ); and (IG) Longview Reliable (LWR).
Having a number of related bulls in AI is not new, but the number of closely related bulls is becoming increasingly significant.
So is this becoming an issue within AI companies?
No-one can really question how effective genomically-selected bulls have been at improving the national herd’s economic breeding index (EBI), but you only have to look at the sires of the genomic bulls and a potential issue could arise.
The same names continue to appear – Pivotal and Albert – these sires dominated the spring 2021 offering of young genomic sires.
This is what you might expect given the number of breedings that have be attributed to these bulls over the last number of years, and how successful the use of these bulls has been for farmers.
However, the potential issue does not just stop with the young genomic sires, with several more bulls being closely related.
Coolnasoon Art
Looking at 2021 sire advice from ICBF, the No.1 recommend bull was (IG) Doonmanagh Seville with 31,078 inseminations. He was also the second most used bull in 2020 on dairy farms with 40,049 recorded serves.
However, Seville is a half-brother of (IG) Ballygowen Albert. Albert himself has 19,625 matings based of 2021 sire advice up to May 6, and 34,172 matings based of 2020 breeding records.
Both Albert and Seville were sired by Coolnasoon Art (2249), along with five other bulls still active in AI companies, including Jeanjo Art and Coromohide Dart.
It should also be noted that Albert had two sons on the ‘Top 20’ sires advice list (IG) Olcastletown Picasso (5,346 serves) and (IG) Viaductview Fiveo (6,119 serves).
That means that one family accounted for 62,168 serves based on sire advice recommendation. This number is likely to increase once more figures become available.
Castleblagh Odie
The next family can be traced back to (IG) Castleblagh Odie (ABO) as he is related to a number of bulls on 2021 sire advice.
ABO has a total of eight sons on the active bull list, including Possextown Faithful SRM who had 5,805 serves in 2021.
The most well-known bull produced by ABO is (IG) Longview Reliable (LWR). LWR has a total of eight sons still active in AI, including Clorane Dandyman with 21,097 recorded serves in 2020.
The most well-known of LWR sons is (IG) Kilfeacle Pivotal with 27,166 recorded serves from sire advice in 2021. (IG) Kilfeacle Pivotal topped the top 50 bulls list in 2020 with 44,768 recorded serves.
Another LWR son was (IG) Springhaven Supreme with 6,758 serves. This means that from the ABO family on 2021 sire advice, 39,732 cows or heifers were served by bulls from this family.
Lauragh Evert
The family connections do not stop there, (IG) Lauragh Evert (LHZ) is the starting point of the next family connection.
But before we dive into LHZ too much, (IG) Kilfeacle Pivotal’s dam was Kilfeacle Olive and she was sired by LHZ. So that means that Pivotal is closely related to both LHZ and LWR, arguably two of the most dominant bulls in Irish AI.
LHZ produced a number of bulls for AI, 10 of which can still be found on the active bull list.
Gaddagh Cuddy Reeks (GZY) is one such bull – he sired a bull called (IG) Olcastletown Ronaldo (2298).
Ronaldo still has seven sons on the active bull list, including (IG) Highmount Stark and Rathlannon Esmonde SRM.
Olcastletown Picasso, who we mentioned earlier as being a son of Ballygowen Albert, is also closely related to Olcastletown Ronaldo and Olcastletown Tiernan – their lineage can all be traced back to a cow also named Olcastletown Ronaldo.
Three of Olcastletown Ronaldo’s (2298) sons are in the ‘top 7’ on the active bulls list – (IG) Highmount Stark, Hillsdale MO Salah, Riverside Harold SRM – with a fourth, Glenaboy Ronald in the ‘top 12’.
Stark, Esmonde and Glenaboy accounted for 48,043 serves based on sire advice last year. But they also had a nephew on the list.
(IG) Stonepark Sergi SRM is a son of (IG) Gabriel Zoro, meaning he is a grandson of Ronaldo, which means this family accounted for 61,889 serves based on sire advice.
Rathlannon Esmonde SRM with 15,614 record serves featured on the ICBF top 50 list of bulls in 2020, along with another (IG) Olcastletown Ronaldo son – (IG) Cornaslieve Virginia with 27,857 serves.
Genetic pool
While often, many of the genomic bulls only last one year in AI, it would appear that several AI companies have a significant number of bulls who are closely related.
It begs the question perhaps as to why AI companies are relying on Pivotal and Albert so much for genomic sires.
What remains unclear is how many inseminations from the 73% of cows and heifers who were served to genomically-selected bulls, can be linked back to Pivotal and Albert or even LHZ and LWR.
Could the close relationship between top AI bulls lead to issues within the national herd going forward and farmers may be asking whether chasing EBI has lead to this?