Ireland-New Bull scheme.

IRELAND-SELECTIVE CATTLE BREEDING.

Genomically-selected dairy sires will be included on an individual basis on the active bull list for the spring breeding season, the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) has confirmed.

The surprise decision was taken by the ICBF board last Thursday evening, following an earlier dairy industry meeting which had strongly supported the move.

The new policy means dairy farmers will now have access to bulls with far higher EBI scores than were available to them under the former regime.

The average EBI of the proven sires on the proposed active bull list for this year was €127. However, the inclusion of individual genomically-selected sires means that the EBI average will now jump to €150.

Unlike proven sires, milk production and fertility figures for genomically-selected bulls are based on their genetic potential rather than on the actual performance of their progeny.

Pressure from farmers to make the best dairy sires available to them was a critical factor in persuading the main industry stakeholders to move.

At the industry meeting in Moorepark on Thursday -- which was attended by 40 representatives from the AI companies, Teagasc, UCD, ICBF and farmer representatives -- four options regarding the make-up of the active bull list were put forward by ICBF.

It was proposed to maintain the former system, reduce the bull reliability for EBI from 60pc to 35pc, include proven sires and teams of genomically-selected bulls, or allow the proven sires along with individually identified genomically-selected bulls.

That the last of the options was decided on will be welcomed by those dairy farmers who are keen to grow their herd EBI and have been pushing for high EBI sires from the Gene Ireland programme to be made available to them quicker.

It was also agreed at last week’s meeting to increase the number of straws from the genomically-selected bulls. Just 5,000 straws were to be available for each of the bulls but this figure is likely to be increased to more than 8,000.

Each bull will be withdrawn from the active list once all the available straws are used up. However, it is planned to update the list through the breeding season, with other sires from the Gene Ireland programme coming on stream as bulls from the current list drop out.

Meanwhile, advisors pointed out that reliability figures for the genomically-tested sires were low and warned farmers to choose several bulls to lower the risk of cows not going in calf.