The use of beef sires on dairy cows has become more popular and will continue to grow into the future with the increased use of sexed semen.
According to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) some 727,018 calves born to dairy cows were sired by beef bulls in 2022.
Of those 727,018, some 176,284 were registered to beef artificial insemination (AI) sires. This represents approximately 24% of all beef calves born in the period, according to ICBF.
Dairy beef
The quality of the beef calves coming from the dairy herd has come under increased focus in recent times, with the introduction of the Dairy Beef Index (DBI) and Commercial Beef Value (CBV).
The aim of the DBI is to promote high-quality beef cattle bred from the dairy herd that are more saleable as calves and profitable at slaughter.
However, they should also have minimal consequences on the calving difficulty or gestation length of the dairy cow.
The use of beef AI on dairy cows has been gradually increasing year-on-year, but 33% of the calves were still registered to a stockbull in 2022.
According to ICBF, approximately 43% of dairy beef calves born in 2022 had no sire recorded.
Without a recorded sire, calves cannot be given an EBI, Euro-Star or DBI value, as the calf is missing 50% of the back breeding.
Beef sires
As the use of beef sires on dairy cows increases, ICBF has released a list of the top 10 sires used by dairy farmers on their cows in 2022.
Top of the list and the first of five Angus bull in the top-ten list is Intelagri Matteo E.T., with 12,449 calves registered to him. He is a National Cattle Breeding Centre (NCBC) sire.
Second on the list is another Angus bull Intelagri Maverick E.T., with 9,140 calves registered to him; he is also a NCBC sire.
In third place and the first of three Hereford sires on the list is Fisher 1 Profile P456, with 7,977 calves registered to him; he is another NCBC sire.
The first of two Belgian Blue sires comes in seventh place Coolbanagher King and the second Belgian Blue sire is in tenth place and is An De Beauffaux.
Coolbanagher King has 4,586 calves registered to him and is an NCBC sire, while An De Beauffaux has 3,053 calves registered to him and is a Dovea Genetics sire.
The list containing the top 50 beef AI sires that sired dairy beef calves in 2022 contains eight different breeds, according to ICBF.
Angus and Hereford sires make up 78% of the top 50 bulls.
The list includes:
- 19 Angus;
- 15 Hereford
- Six Belgian Blue;
- Four Limousin;
- Two Simmental;
- Two Speckled Park;
- One Charolais;
- One Aubrac.