BETTER farm: participants pick their top 10 favourite bulls

Calving is progressing well on all of the spring-calving Teagasc/Irish Farmers Journal BETTER farm beef challenge farms and in some cases it is complete. Two of the biggest jobs taking place over the next fortnight will be closing off silage ground and starting the breeding season.

Table 1 details expected calving dates for spring 2020 based on a 383-day gestation length from the date of service.

Looking at the table, for those planning to start calving in late January or early February, planning for breeding should now be a priority.

Preparations for a breeding season should include a focus on herd health, cow nutrition and stock bull management.

These were covered in detail in last week’s beef breeding focus.

One factor of breeding that has come more and more important since the beginning of the BETTER farm beef challenge is AI and the range of sires used on the programme farms.

As part of the current phase of the BETTER farm programme, each farmer had to undertake a total of six challenges which were geared towards improving certain aspects of their suckler enterprise.

The breeding challenge was one of 10 challenges in which farmers could choose to participate.

Increasing the average replacement value of your herd by €20 was the overall aim of this challenge but it also considered the six ICBF calving KPIs – calving interval, mortality at birth, mortality at 28 days, calves per cow per year, percentage of heifers calved at 22 to 26 months and calving pattern.

Many of the farmers who chose to partake in this challenge identified AI as one of the keys to unlocking greater potential within their herds and subsequently helping to meet the breeding challenge targets. As it stands, 14 out of the 24 programme farmers are using AI on their farms.

Farmers such as John and James Flaherty and Gareth McCormack are implementing 100% AI, others such as Tom Bolger and Sean Hayes are using a combination of AI and stock bulls, while farmers such as Ricky Milligan are using the breeding technique for maiden heifers.

A number of other programme farmers have signalled their intent to avail of AI.

Without doubt, one of the main benefits of AI is the opportunity it gives farmers to access a massive range of bulls with high genetic merit. Looking through the BETTER farms, it is clear that those using AI are availing of the potential to use variety.

On the 14 farms, 58 different bulls have sired over 400 calves across the autumn 2018 and spring 2019 calf crops. That’s an average of four AI sires per farm and an average of seven calves per sire. Table 2 details the 10 most popular sires of the 400-plus AI calves born in the last two calving periods.

Looking at the top 10 bulls, a trend is apparent with eight out of the 10 bulls predominantly maternal.

This would be in keeping with the breeding challenge objectives to improve the average replacement index of each herd. Farmers are clearly turning to AI to help breed better-quality replacement females internally. Furthermore, as farms look to increase output and increase suckler cow numbers, a big focus must be paid to labour. Labour at calving time can be significantly reduced with the use of easy-calving sires.

Once again, eight out of the 10 bulls in Table 2 have a calving difficulty of less than 6%. Finally, it is important to note that while only four breeds feature in Table 2, a total of nine breeds were represented in the 58 bulls used. This signals a preference among farmers to look at figures and traits across breeds as opposed to simply focusing on breeds alone.

A number of our current programme farmers have taken the route of 100% AI for the first time and so far results have been very successful.

Typically high maternal value sires are used on maternal cows and early calvers while more terminal sires are used on the rest of the herd.

Continental breeds continue to dominate the bull lists used but some Angus and Hereford sires have become popular with the BETTER farmers, with impressive carcase weights achieved.

For farmers to begin using AI on spring herds, a system to draft stock off grass must be in place – roadways, good fencing and easy access to handling facilities are a must.

Generally a system involving moving stock to new grass every day makes handling simpler.

Many BETTER farmers are also using heat detection aids such as tailpainting, scratch pads, teaser bulls with a chin ball or more modern electronic devices to detect cows in heat.