The Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) recently released a table showing the top 10 artificial insemination (AI) sires used on suckler cows in 2022.
According to the ICBF, 822,746 beef calves (beef sire and beef dam) were born on Irish farms in 2022 and of these, 169,295 were registered to beef AI sires.
This indicates that approximately 21% of all suckler calves born in 2022 were sired by AI bulls. 51% of the calves were registered to a stock bull and 28% of the calves had no sire recorded.
The table below shows the 10 most popular beef AI sires recorded on suckler-bred calves born in 2022. Click on or tap the image to view:
As the table above indicates, Charolais bull Lapon was the most commonly used AI bull in 2022. Five of the top 10 AI bulls in 2022 were Limousin, with three Charolais and two Angus included in the top 10 also.
Eight of the 10 bulls and all of the top three bulls graduated from the Gene Ireland programme over the years.
“This highlights the value of the programme for progeny testing young high-impact sires which helps to drive the rate of genetic gain by building high-reliability indexes at a young age on the back of robust data recording,” according to the ICBF.
Every spring and autumn a new panel of young high-genetic merit sires are made available to suckler farmers for €7/straw.
The top 50 most popular beef AI sires recorded on suckler-bred calves in 2022 is made up of 9 different breeds, with Limousin and Charolais making up 62% of the top 50 bulls.
The top 50 AI bulls used on suckler cows in 2022 includes:
- 18 Limousin;
- 13 Charolais;
- Seven Angus;
- Three Belgian Blue;
- Five Simmental;
- One Hereford;
- One Saler;
- One Shorthorn;
- One Aubrac.
According to the ICBF, sire data is vital information to have recorded for any animal from a genetic evaluation point of view.