We are now six months into 2021, with a total of 553,539 registered beef births so far this year. Now seems like a good time to look back at the top 50 beef AI (artificial insemination) bulls from 2020.
From the data recently released by the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF), the top three bulls on the list – Fiston (FSZ), Castleview Gazelle (ZAG) and Moondharrig Knell (LM4217) – account for 39,048 recorded serves.
The top 50 bulls on the list account for a total of 104,204 serves in 2020.
The top 50 bull list is made up of nine different breeds, with Limousin (14) and Charolais (11) making up 25 of the bulls on the list.
The remaining 25 places are made up of seven Angus; six Belgian Blue; four Simmental; three Hereford; two Salers; two Shorthorn; and one Aubrac bull.
Top of the list
Fiston (FSZ), a Charolais bull, had the highest number of recorded serves in 2020 with a total of 13,959. Fiston is a National Cattle Breeding Centre (NCBC) bull.
Image source: Progressive Genetics
Second on the list is Castleview Gazelle (ZAG), a Limousin bull, with 12,940 total serves for 2020; he is also a NCBC bull.
Image source: Progressive Genetics
Top 50
Seventh altogether and the highest Angus bull on the list is Intelagri Matteo E.T., he is also a NCBC bull and had 3,829 record serves in 2020.
Image source: Progressive Genetics
Tenth is Curaheen Earp, the first of the four Simmental sires on the list, with 2,449 serves recorded.
Sixteenth is Knottown Roy and the first of two Salers bull, the second being Highfield Odran. Knottown Roy had 1,666 recorded serves last year.
Image source: Progressive Genetics
Twenty-fifth on the list is the first of the Hereford sires, Fabb 1 Northern Star, with 1,145 recorded serves.
In twenty-ninth place we find the first shorthorn bull, Buncraggy Fire Fox (RO)(P), closely followed in thirtieth place by the one and only Aubrac bull on the list Turloughmore Magnificent – with 809 and 798 recorded serves respectively.
Image source: Progressive Genetics
Full top 50 list
