In last week’s pedigree section, we ran the listing of the top indexed bull on both replacement and terminal indices. Since then, I have been inundated with responses, both good and bad.
Many were delighted to see their bull make the top rankings, while others raised concern that by publishing the tables, we were advising breeders to use only the top-indexed bulls.
While I personally might not agree with the latter, I do think it is worth highlighting again that the €uro-Star indices should only be used as a tool when selecting stock.
Phenotypic traits and breeding should always take the lead. Breeders need to look past a bull’s rank on a page and look at the animal in front of them.
However, these responses did remind me of an article from last year’s Irish Pedigree Breeder magazine.
The article gives a brief background as to why there has been such a surge in the talk and use of stars in recent years, along with the consequences it carries and how, in some cases, you can make the best of a bad situation.
Chasing stars
The focus on €uro-Star evaluations comes in response to the roll-out of the Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) in 2015.
While the scheme can only be looked upon favourably in the beef sector as a whole given its substantial monetary investment, it could stand to be detrimental to the pedigree sector.
The scheme
The scheme’s main objective is to encourage the introduction of animals of a higher genetic merit into the national beef herd.
This is mainly based on assessing the national beef herd through the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation’s (ICBF) genetic beef evaluation system of €uro-Star indices.
While there are a number of requirements in the scheme, such as genotyping, data collection and carbon navigators, the one which stands out in most discussions is the replacement strategy.
This strategy comes under two main requirements covering breeding females and the bull side of the house. They are as follows:
Female replacements: A percentage of replacement heifers/eligible suckler cows must be genotyped four- or five-star on the replacement index. By the end of October 2018, at least 20% of the reference animals (the number of calved cows in 2014) must comply and this increases to 50% by end October 2020. These animals must be at least 16 months old and have been born in 2013 or later.Stock bull: If the farmer is using a stock bull, by 30 June 2019 at least one bull on the farm must have been genotyped four- or five-star at the time of purchase. Eighty percent of AI used on the farm must be from four- or five-star bulls since 30 June 2016.This key focus on stars within the national suckler herd has, in many cases, driven the commercial man to a different frame of mind when purchasing stock without the full picture being known.
Buyers at sales throughout the year across all breeds were instinctively looking to the animal’s €uro-Star value before looking at the animal itself.
Selling stock became a doddle if you had an animal with stars, with some buyers taking the values on the page as gospel.
This becomes a serious problem when the majority of stock sold at auctions carry reliability for these indices sub-50%. These €uro-Star values are only as good as the reliability figure beside them.
To demonstrate just how important the reliability figure is with regard to the €uro-Star index, I took the top 10 priced bulls at a premier sale last spring and looked in detail at their replacement index.
Subsequently, nine of the 10 bulls ranked five stars on replacement within breed, with the other four stars. These ranged from €81 to €138, with an average of €111.
However, if we look at the average reliability, it comes in at just over 25%. Broadly speaking, a bull with a reliability of 25% could change by up to €103 plus or minus, meaning all the top-priced five-star bulls could have dropped to one star by the time they are is fully proven.
Future concern
With such an emphasis on the €uro-Star values, it ultimately means a lot of, and in many cases, better lower-ranked bulls not getting a look in when it comes to auction. Breeders before anyone else pick up on sale trends, in the same way they pick up on bulls consistently producing good stock; it’s their job to.
This led many of the country’s pedigree breeders over the past year, similar to the commercial man, selecting their service sires on stars alone, as they know when it comes down to it, they’ll get paid for the subsequent progeny, even if there’s a drop in quality.
Along with the potential drop in quality, this leads to further issues down the line, the main one being inbreeding. If breeders continue to use only four- and five-star proven bulls available in Ireland, each breed’s gene pool will be drastically reduced, meaning an increased chance of inbreeding in the future.
Outcross genetics are essential across every breed for best use of hybrid vigour in cattle. Many breeders who would have imported outcross genetics, which may have been topping sales and hitting the highest performance in other countries, will likely no longer take the risk, as, in many cases, their genetic evaluations won’t be carried through, along with taking a number of years to improve ranking and reliabilities.
Increasing reliabilities
Breeders need to remember that genetics which are seen to perform in countries which use a similar production system as Ireland are likely to do the same here and there are a number of ways in which breeders can speed up the evaluation process of these and other pedigree cattle.
Higher-merit bulls available through AI are usually the slowest to increase in value. This is not down to the quality of the cattle, rather the amount of information coming in on them.
If a top bull is only €10/straw, all pedigree and commercial breeders will use him. A lot of data will come off them from the pedigree herd, but more so the commercial herd, which gets carcase weights and conformations.
If a bull is €100/straw, he is used sparingly and it is likely many of the progeny won’t be slaughtered for a number of years, as they’ll be kept for breeding.
Frequent weighing and the use of tools such as linear scoring will allow vital carcase data be collected on progeny from an early age without having to wait for slaughter.
With the amount of genomic information coming to fruition due to the BDGP, by using genomics, reliabilities can be drastically increased on all traits over a relatively short space of time, especially if the animal themselves and a number of progeny are accounted for.
Benefit
Finally, the participation in programmes such as the new Whole Herd Performance Programme can only be of benefit. Increased data collection from all animals can only lead to stronger evaluations, which in turn will improve the role of genomics in identifying the most profitable animals at an earlier stage.
€uro-Star evaluations are only a tool, a tool which needs to be used in conjunction with proven pedigrees and phenotypic characteristics.
At the end of the day, a great animal will always make money no matter what stars it carries, but unless breeders continue to invest in the best genetics available, Ireland stands to lose its long-standing reputation as a producer of some of the best pedigree cattle in the world.
In last week’s pedigree section, we ran the listing of the top indexed bull on both replacement and terminal indices. Since then, I have been inundated with responses, both good and bad.
Many were delighted to see their bull make the top rankings, while others raised concern that by publishing the tables, we were advising breeders to use only the top-indexed bulls.
While I personally might not agree with the latter, I do think it is worth highlighting again that the €uro-Star indices should only be used as a tool when selecting stock.
Phenotypic traits and breeding should always take the lead. Breeders need to look past a bull’s rank on a page and look at the animal in front of them.
However, these responses did remind me of an article from last year’s Irish Pedigree Breeder magazine.
The article gives a brief background as to why there has been such a surge in the talk and use of stars in recent years, along with the consequences it carries and how, in some cases, you can make the best of a bad situation.
Chasing stars
The focus on €uro-Star evaluations comes in response to the roll-out of the Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) in 2015.
While the scheme can only be looked upon favourably in the beef sector as a whole given its substantial monetary investment, it could stand to be detrimental to the pedigree sector.
The scheme
The scheme’s main objective is to encourage the introduction of animals of a higher genetic merit into the national beef herd.
This is mainly based on assessing the national beef herd through the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation’s (ICBF) genetic beef evaluation system of €uro-Star indices.
While there are a number of requirements in the scheme, such as genotyping, data collection and carbon navigators, the one which stands out in most discussions is the replacement strategy.
This strategy comes under two main requirements covering breeding females and the bull side of the house. They are as follows:
Female replacements: A percentage of replacement heifers/eligible suckler cows must be genotyped four- or five-star on the replacement index. By the end of October 2018, at least 20% of the reference animals (the number of calved cows in 2014) must comply and this increases to 50% by end October 2020. These animals must be at least 16 months old and have been born in 2013 or later.Stock bull: If the farmer is using a stock bull, by 30 June 2019 at least one bull on the farm must have been genotyped four- or five-star at the time of purchase. Eighty percent of AI used on the farm must be from four- or five-star bulls since 30 June 2016.This key focus on stars within the national suckler herd has, in many cases, driven the commercial man to a different frame of mind when purchasing stock without the full picture being known.
Buyers at sales throughout the year across all breeds were instinctively looking to the animal’s €uro-Star value before looking at the animal itself.
Selling stock became a doddle if you had an animal with stars, with some buyers taking the values on the page as gospel.
This becomes a serious problem when the majority of stock sold at auctions carry reliability for these indices sub-50%. These €uro-Star values are only as good as the reliability figure beside them.
To demonstrate just how important the reliability figure is with regard to the €uro-Star index, I took the top 10 priced bulls at a premier sale last spring and looked in detail at their replacement index.
Subsequently, nine of the 10 bulls ranked five stars on replacement within breed, with the other four stars. These ranged from €81 to €138, with an average of €111.
However, if we look at the average reliability, it comes in at just over 25%. Broadly speaking, a bull with a reliability of 25% could change by up to €103 plus or minus, meaning all the top-priced five-star bulls could have dropped to one star by the time they are is fully proven.
Future concern
With such an emphasis on the €uro-Star values, it ultimately means a lot of, and in many cases, better lower-ranked bulls not getting a look in when it comes to auction. Breeders before anyone else pick up on sale trends, in the same way they pick up on bulls consistently producing good stock; it’s their job to.
This led many of the country’s pedigree breeders over the past year, similar to the commercial man, selecting their service sires on stars alone, as they know when it comes down to it, they’ll get paid for the subsequent progeny, even if there’s a drop in quality.
Along with the potential drop in quality, this leads to further issues down the line, the main one being inbreeding. If breeders continue to use only four- and five-star proven bulls available in Ireland, each breed’s gene pool will be drastically reduced, meaning an increased chance of inbreeding in the future.
Outcross genetics are essential across every breed for best use of hybrid vigour in cattle. Many breeders who would have imported outcross genetics, which may have been topping sales and hitting the highest performance in other countries, will likely no longer take the risk, as, in many cases, their genetic evaluations won’t be carried through, along with taking a number of years to improve ranking and reliabilities.
Increasing reliabilities
Breeders need to remember that genetics which are seen to perform in countries which use a similar production system as Ireland are likely to do the same here and there are a number of ways in which breeders can speed up the evaluation process of these and other pedigree cattle.
Higher-merit bulls available through AI are usually the slowest to increase in value. This is not down to the quality of the cattle, rather the amount of information coming in on them.
If a top bull is only €10/straw, all pedigree and commercial breeders will use him. A lot of data will come off them from the pedigree herd, but more so the commercial herd, which gets carcase weights and conformations.
If a bull is €100/straw, he is used sparingly and it is likely many of the progeny won’t be slaughtered for a number of years, as they’ll be kept for breeding.
Frequent weighing and the use of tools such as linear scoring will allow vital carcase data be collected on progeny from an early age without having to wait for slaughter.
With the amount of genomic information coming to fruition due to the BDGP, by using genomics, reliabilities can be drastically increased on all traits over a relatively short space of time, especially if the animal themselves and a number of progeny are accounted for.
Benefit
Finally, the participation in programmes such as the new Whole Herd Performance Programme can only be of benefit. Increased data collection from all animals can only lead to stronger evaluations, which in turn will improve the role of genomics in identifying the most profitable animals at an earlier stage.
€uro-Star evaluations are only a tool, a tool which needs to be used in conjunction with proven pedigrees and phenotypic characteristics.
At the end of the day, a great animal will always make money no matter what stars it carries, but unless breeders continue to invest in the best genetics available, Ireland stands to lose its long-standing reputation as a producer of some of the best pedigree cattle in the world.
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