Almost 94% of calves born from January 1 to March 20, 2024 have been verified to a sire under the National Genotyping Programme (NGP), the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) said.
Just 18% of calves born in the same period in 2023, prior to the rollout of the new programme, were sire verified.
The ICBF said that the increase in sire verification due to NGP will “greatly increase index reliabilities and result in better breeding decisions in the future”.
Genotyping
The NGP, which is administered by ICBF, is based on a cost-sharing model between the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), the beef and dairy industry and participating farmers.
There are currently approximately 10,500 herds participating in the programme of which just over 3,500 are dairy herds and 6,700 are beef herds.
According to ICBF, the national average sire error rate is approximately 10%, meaning 1 in 10 calves are mistakenly registered to a bull that is not their actual sire.
It said that the rollout of the NGP will “reduce this error rate considerably in the coming years”.
Twins
ICBF said that genotyping of twin calves at birth also allows their DNA to be analysed in more detail.
“Cases of heteropaternal and identical twins can be identified which are often difficult to confirm without a DNA profile from both animals,” it said.
Heteropaternal twins occur when two or more eggs are fertilised by two or more males during the same reproductive cycle resulting in twins with different sires.
Identical twins originate from a single fertilised egg that divided into two distinct embryos. Both animals in this scenario will have identical DNA.
To date in 2024, 1.6% of calvings in NGP herds from a dairy sire and dairy dam resulted in twin births.
The ICBF data shows that 5.8% of these were heteropaternal and the incidence of identical twins was 4.7%.
Twin calves born from a beef sire and beef dam is currently running at 2.6%. Just under 1% of these twin births were heteropaternal and 1.7% were classified as being genetically identical.
ICBF said that accurate parentage information is vitally important to assist farmers in making informed breeding decisions.
It added that having a sire and dam verified through genotyping greatly reduces the possibility of inbreeding, provides more accurate genetic information and indexes and may increase buyer confidence.