The new carbon sub-index for the economic breeding index (EBI) was launched today (Wednesday, November 16) at Corrin Mart in Co. Cork.

Farmers will see the new sub-index and other changes including an update to the beef sub-index in the next genetic evaluations released next Tuesday (November 22).

There will also be changes to the health sub-index which will see an update to somatic cell count (SCC) model and bovine TB prevalence value.

Carbon sub-index

Farmers will be familiar with how the EBI can operate to increase profitability on Irish farms, but the EBI will now have a trait focused on reducing emissions.

The new carbon sub-index will see all traits have an emission value associated with them and some traits will increase emissions while others will decrease emissions.

The carbon sub-index will account for 10% of the total EBI figure.

Traits that increase feed intake and production from cows will have higher levels of emission associated with them.

This means that the traits such as milk kg, fat kg, protein kg and carcass weight kg will all have increased emissions associated with them.

Image source: Teagasc

Where animals that last longer in the herd, have a lower live weight and have higher levels of fertility these will have a lower emissions figure associated with them.

Therefore, the figure for survival percentage, live weight kg, calving interval and day to slaughter will decrease the emissions associated with the animal.

Live weight is included as animals with a lower live weight require less energy to maintain that weight, compared to animals with higher live weights.

EBI

Breeding using EBI already reduces emissions from the dairy herd but using this new index will decrease emissions further by 6.55kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent (CO2e) C02e.

At 1.6 million dairy cows this represents a reduction of 30 kilo tonnes (Kt) CO2e/ year from agriculture.

This should enable the agricultural sector to meet its climate obligations that have been published by the government.

It was revealed at the event, that the top 100 bulls ranked by EBI have an average carbon sub-index value of €11, while the average index for value for herds is €6.

Margaret Kelleher from ICBF shared with the audience of more than 100 people at Corrin Mart the projected expectation of what the cow of 2030 may look like.

Kelleher said the predicted genetic trends could indicate that there will be an increase of €5 in the carbon sub-index and a €9 increase in the fertility sub-index.

It is also expected that overall EBI will decrease by €4, and the milk sub-index will decrease by €10.