Maybe dairy breeding and management must change again
Comment
The Lyons herd on the University College Dublin farm in mid-April: farms like this, producing 46% more milk solids per cow than the national average, may yet be the template for a dairy industry with much fewer cows and a much lower carbon footprint, but still producing as much or more milk than our current dairy cow herd of about 1.5 million.
Mon, 17 May, 2021 - 14:30
Stephen Cadogan
The EU-27 reduced its dairy cow numbers by about 25% since 2001.
This is likely to have reduced methane emissions from dairy cows by 20%, thus contributing to global cooling.
May 5, 2021, 6:10 am
As the breeding season begins, it is time to sit up and take notice of the cows currently milking in your herd or maybe even those which still have yet to calve.
Teagasc recommends “taking a closer look at your herd’s figures on a per cow basis” to see which cows are making a farmer money and those which are not.
Identifying these underperforming cows – which every farmer is guilty of holding onto – will help you “to make better breeding decisions” when matching the most suitable bull to the most suitable cow.
These underperforming cows can be identified using milk recording results or the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation’s (ICBF) Cow’s Own Worth (COW) online tool. Although, a lot of these cows may already be known by the farmer for one reason or another.
May 4, 2021, 6:20 am
On a recent ‘Lets talk cattle’ webinar hosted by Teagasc, Andrew Cromie from the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) spoke about research based on methane output, which was carried out at the ICBF test centre based in Tully, Co. Kildare.
As part of the research over 670 cattle have had a direct measurement taken of growth, feed intake and methane output per day. These cattle are also progeny of different artificial insemination (AI) sires.
Speaking about the trials and studies, that have taken place and made comparatives between suckler-beef progeny, dairy-beef progeny and between their genders, Andrew explained:
“We are seeing clear breed and gender differences; it’s not surprising that we know young bulls are more efficient than steers or heifers. The bulls have a lower methane output/day.
May 2, 2021, 6:10 am
With the breeding season due to start on many farms over the coming days, and with many other farms having already started, the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) has outlined some simple steps to follow during the 2021 breeding season.
1. Identify your herd’s genetics
Firstly, you should identify where your herd is at. In order to improve and make progress you need to identify where your herd’s performance is currently.
This can be done by using your economic breeding index (EBI) report and dairy herd performance report.
2. Define your breeding goals
Once you have identified where your herd’s performance is at, the next step is to define your breeding goals.