Applications are continuing to come in for the spring G€N€ IR€LAND programme, with 392 herds now taking part. A total of 6,000 straws have been ordered, at an average order of 15 straws per herd.

Topping the list is the Aubrac bull Balinclea Iveco (VEZ). This bull combines five-star replacement and terminal indices within and across breeds, with a calving ease of 1.3%. A total of 475 straws have been ordered for VEZ, not far ahead of Angus bull Steil Jacob (JBS) on 450 orders. A mix of breeds seems to be taking off, with a Blonde d’Aquitaine SGA on 440 orders, while Angus bull JJC and Partenaise bull ZYH both have 435 clocked up.

This year’s bulls are part of the maternal beef programme set up by the ICBF in autumn 2012 with the aim of improving the maternal value of the Irish suckler herd. These bulls were identified on the basis of maternal performance of their dam as well as the maternal background of the sire.

Last month, Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney opened the new Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) with a key focus on replacement indices. One provision of the scheme is that 20% of a participating herd must be four or five stars for replacement index by 2018, while this increases to 50% four or five stars by 2020.

Looking at the “within breed” section, six of the 20 bulls failed to meet the replacement index requirement of four or five stars.

When asked about how these bulls proceeded through the selection process having three stars or less, ICBF Tully manager Stephen Conroy said: “A number of bulls in the programme have been entered due to pedigrees selected by organised breed committees. These committees are made up of representatives from ICBF, AI companies, as well as pedigree and commercial breeders. Some bulls would be purchased by relevant performance figures from the likes of the UK and France where their reliability would be higher. So bulls which fail to meet the replacement criteria now, we are confident would meet it once progeny testing begins.”