A list of the most popular beef AI sires and dairy AI sires used on dairy herds during 2018 was recently released by the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF).
Taking a look at the most popular dairy sires used on dairy herds, the Holstein-Friesian breed continues to be the favourite.
Some of the top used Holstein-Friesian sires included: Nextgen YKG Candy (FR2385) with 12,269 calves; Ardragold Parker with 18,681 calves; Diamond Anton (FR2239) with 18,520 calves; and Searoad AWS Pamela (SEW) with 17,739 calves.
Image source: ICBF
The next favoured breed on dairy was Jersey. The bull Priests Solaris-ET, otherwise known as PSQ, had 11,001 calves, followed by Okura Integrity (OKT) with 4,936 and Arkans Beaut (JE4270) with 3,359.
Image source: ICBF
The next breed in line was Friesian. The bull Dovea Jubilaris (JRB) had 3,099 calves followed by Gurranes Adema (XGA) with 2,227 calves.
Other breeds used on dairy included: Montbeliarde; Norwegian Red; and Rotburnt. Out of these, the highest amount of calves were from the Norwegian Red bull Braut (ZBR) – with 586 calves.
Image source: ICBF
Looking at the most popular beef sires used on dairy, Angus and Hereford were the two most popular breeds. The Angus sire Cornamuckla Lord Hardy or KYA came out on top with 16,014 calves registered.
Next up was Solpoll Kentucky Kid or HE2043, a Hereford sire with 10,135 calves. Following on from him was another Hereford sire known as Solpoll Handsome or SPL, with 6,109 calves.
Image source: ICBF
Succeeding these, the next two most popular breeds used on dairy were Belgian Blue and Limousin.
The most popular Belgian Blue sire was Manitou De Belle or DBZ with 3,861 calves and the most popular Limousin sire was Elderberry Galahad or EBY with 2,381 calves.
From the list, the two least popular beef breeds used on dairy were Charolais and Simmental.