Over 3.7 million individual hits were recorded on the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation’s (ICBF’s) animal search facility in 2017.

The animal search tool gives users up-to-date genetic and progeny performance information on AI bulls, stock bulls and – as of this year – females located in a Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) or HerdPlus herd, according to the ICBF.

A total of 3,787,123 searches were carried out on the facility in 2017; this was an increase of over 850,000 hits compared to the figures for the previous year.

But, this was the first full calendar year that the ‘ICBF Animal Search’ has been available since changing from the ‘Bull Search’ earlier in 2016, the ICBF explained.

In the year just gone, 83% (3,150,260) of the total number of searches carried out were for bulls – with the remaining 17% (636,863) searches being for females.

ICBF

Breakdown of usage of ICBF Animal Search facility in 2017

Sire searches

In 2017, beef sire searches equalled in excess of 2.1 million – an increase of over 375,000 searches compared to the figures from 2016. The ICBF attributed this increase to the continuation of the BDGP scheme.

The ICBF claims that beef sire searches are at an all-time-high for both AI and stock bulls, which shows that users are showing more interest in genetic indexes.

There was also an increase in the number of dairy sires searched for in 2017 compared to the previous year. In the year just gone there were just over 1 million searches carried out for dairy sires – an increase of over 285,000.

But it must be remembered that 2017 was the first full calendar year that the animal search facility was operational.

This high level of interest in the animal search facility confirms the confidence that users have in Dairy EBI (Economic Breeding Index) and Beef Eurostar, as a means to accurately rank AI and stock bulls, the ICBF added.

The animal search facility displays animal data including identification, ancestry, genetic and performance data.

ICBF

Detailed breakdown of usage of ICBF Animal Search facility (Males only). Image source: ICBF