The top dairy sire based on the number of calves registered to them in 2023 has been revealed by the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF).
The data shows that National Cattle Breeding Centre (NCBC) sire (IG) Knockenright Chessman topped the list, with 13,225 calves registered.
(IG) Bauravillia Pistol comes in a close second with 12,679 calves registered, and in third place is (IG) Doonmanagh Seville, who incidentally was the number one most used bull in 2022, with 25,548 calves registered.
(IG) Knockenright Chessman is an NCBC sire and has an economic breeding index (EBI) of €281 – this is made up of a fertility sub-index of €112 and a production sub-index of €107.
Image source: Progressive Genetics
(IG) Bauravillia Pistol is also an NCBC sire and has an EBI of €343, with a production sub-index of €107 and a fertility sub-index of €167.
Image source: Progressive Genetics
(IG) Doonmanagh Seville is another NCBC sire and has an EBI of €249, with a production sub-index for production of €88 and €112 for fertility.
Image source: Progressive Genetics
Top dairy sire
An interesting change in the top dairy sire list for 2023 compared to 2022, is the reduction in the number of total calves registered to the bulls on the list.
In 2022, (IG) Doonmanagh Seville topped the list with 25,548 registered calves ,while in 2023 the top bull (IG) Knockenright Chessman only had 13,225 calves registered to him.
This trend is repeated through the top eight or so bulls on the list, which the ICBF said clearly highlights that dairy farmers are embracing the message of using bigger bull teams.
The selection of a larger number of bulls helps to minimise the risk of a bullproof falling.
Analysis of the ICBF data from shows that 50 dairy artificial insemination (AI) bulls were responsible for 50% of dairy calves produced, whereas in 2022, 45 bulls were responsible for the 50% produced.
According to ICBF, in 2018 only 28 bulls were responsible for 50% of the dairy calves – which now shows that dairy farmers are not overusing any one AI bull.
Instead, dairy farmers are using more bulls in their teams to prevent against bull dropping off.