On Thursday, Kildalton Agricultural College in Piltown, Co Kilkenny, hosted a suckler breeding open day.

The KT-approved event drew in a large crowd of approximately 150 people.

A combination of farm staff and lecturers from Kildalton College, as well as industry personnel from Teagasc, ICBF and the Irish Farmers Journal gave presentations across four separate stands. AI companies were also present.

Beef breeding was the dominant theme of the day and topics ranged from specific breeding performance within the Kildalton suckler herd to a much broader overview of the national breeding figures and strategy.

Are the €uro-Stars working?

Chris Daly of ICBF talked about the development of the €uro-Star indexes and the progress of the national herd since the commencement of the BDGP.

He said prior to the BDGP, the focus was placed too strongly on terminal traits within the national suckler herd. As a result, no progress was being made in terms of the replacement attributes of stock.

The BDGP commenced in 2014 to combat this issue with a much larger focus being placed on maternal traits and genomics underpinning the indexes. But how successful has the programme been?

Daly presented evidence to suggest strong progress is being made. Table 1 shows improvements that have been made in three key maternal performance indicators from 2014 to 2018. They are calves/cow/year, calving interval and the percentage of heifers calved at 24 months.

But furthermore, Daly pointed out that the gains aren’t just on the maternal side of the house. “There is a school of thought that increasing the focus on maternal traits will cause terminal traits to suffer. In fact, the opposite is true”, he said.

Table 2 shows improvements that have been made in three key terminal performance indicators from 2014 to 2018.

To summarise, he said: “€uro-stars and the BDGP are moving the suckler beef industry in the right direction.”

Three key questions

Daly also told farmers the three key questions that they should ask themselves when breeding and sourcing replacement females for their herd.

To breed your own or purchase replacements?

Here, the main factors to consider are the farming system, the size of the operation and health policy on your farm. A closed herd has its benefits but so too does the ability to run only one stock bull with all breeding females in smaller herds.

Some farms may opt for an all-in, all-out policy but others get most success and enjoyment out of improving a herd’s maternal index from within.

Chris Daly, ICBF.

What is the genetic merit of your stock at present?

Is the average replacement index of your cows and bulls high or can it be improved? Genotyping can improve the reliability of the €uro-Star indexes of your cows and shed further light on their maternal and terminal abilities.

Remember, outside of purchasing in females, the only realistic way to improve genetics is through the sire. Culling out a herd is obviously not an option.

Is AI an option?

Following the previous question, with the sire playing such huge role in improving genetics in a herd, can AI be incorporated into the breeding strategy to make faster genetic gain?

Progeny index is the average of its dam and sire – therefore the higher the index of the sire, the higher the index of the progeny.

For more information on Thursday’s event, and for a full breakdown of performance and breeding management in the Kildalton suckler herd, keep an eye out for the upcoming breeding focus in the Irish Farmers Journal.