Is the much-talked-about cow index to help dairy farmers on culling ever going to go public?

MD: The cow index has gone through the research phase and feedback is good from herds where it is on trial. We now need to get the database generating the reports and hopefully when farmers are making culling decisions at the end of this year it will be available.

We have had genomic evaluations for black and white Friesians for years, but yet nothing for crossbred animals – will genomics for crossbreds come soon?

MD: Unfortunately, international research on this is still at square one. We are dealing with a very small cohort of animals in Ireland (about 3.5% of female stock).

What’s next on the LIC contracts debate?

MD: We need to have a discussion on ownership of females with all industry stakeholders over the next couple of months.

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Where now for the ICBF?

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