EBI changes: Over the next few weeks most of the AI companies will be publishing their 2026 bull catalogues, based on the November evaluation, which won’t be updated again until the end of March 2026.
Remember, the base change and some other changes were made to the index back in September, so the EBI of all animals has changed, being about €84 lower on average. Spend time over the next few weeks picking out bulls for next season and placing orders.
The best bulls usually sell out well before the season starts. The other thing is that if bull selection is left until spring, farmers are generally too busy to give it adequate consideration.
At last week’s Teagasc dairy conference, attendees were told that even cows with strong negative figures for milk volume have lots of milk, so pay little heed to the milk volume and instead focus on milk solids in terms of fat and protein percent and kilos. On maintenance, €30 for maintenance sub-index equals a 550kg cow, while a 600kg cow will have a maintenance of €0.
Feed space: Having adequate feed space for cows while they are housed is one of the simplest and yet most important aspects of winter housing management.
Feed space can be tight where there are too many cows in a shed, or where the shed is poorly designed. The impact will be cows not gaining body condition score (BCS) and increased lameness and stress on animals.
The general rule of thumb is that there should be one foot of head space per cow when silage is fed ad-lib. This means there is always silage in front of cows. Where all cows must eat at the one time, for example where silage is being restricted, then there should be two feet of feed space per cow.
If space is very tight then something needs to be done about it, as it will be too late next spring. I’ve seen some farmers let cows walk to the collecting yard to eat silage in a feed trailer or round feeder where feed space in the shed is tight.
On BCS, the target at drying off is to be at 2.75, but I have seen a lot of cows at a BCS of three now.
This means they are likely to be at 3.5 at calving unless they are put on restricted silage. It’s good policy to only feed dry cows what they need, which is usually around 12kg DM/day of silage.
If the silage quality is very good, dry cows will eat a lot more and just get fat. Fat cows are problem cows.
Farm Alert: The Irish Farmers Journal has launched a new product called Farm Alert, which is a text reminder service for farmers to remind them of vaccine and parasite timings.
Farmers choose their own vaccine and worming protocols and the system issues reminders seven days out from the administration date. It’s a smart vaccine and worming calendar that predicts, schedules, and manages herd health reminders using data-driven insights.
It’s designed to make what are often complex decisions around the timing of vaccinations and dosing easier. It’s available for dairy farmers now, with beef and sheep applications coming later. Farmers can sign up to the service at www.farmalert.ie and use the discount code OFFER25.
EBI changes: Over the next few weeks most of the AI companies will be publishing their 2026 bull catalogues, based on the November evaluation, which won’t be updated again until the end of March 2026.
Remember, the base change and some other changes were made to the index back in September, so the EBI of all animals has changed, being about €84 lower on average. Spend time over the next few weeks picking out bulls for next season and placing orders.
The best bulls usually sell out well before the season starts. The other thing is that if bull selection is left until spring, farmers are generally too busy to give it adequate consideration.
At last week’s Teagasc dairy conference, attendees were told that even cows with strong negative figures for milk volume have lots of milk, so pay little heed to the milk volume and instead focus on milk solids in terms of fat and protein percent and kilos. On maintenance, €30 for maintenance sub-index equals a 550kg cow, while a 600kg cow will have a maintenance of €0.
Feed space: Having adequate feed space for cows while they are housed is one of the simplest and yet most important aspects of winter housing management.
Feed space can be tight where there are too many cows in a shed, or where the shed is poorly designed. The impact will be cows not gaining body condition score (BCS) and increased lameness and stress on animals.
The general rule of thumb is that there should be one foot of head space per cow when silage is fed ad-lib. This means there is always silage in front of cows. Where all cows must eat at the one time, for example where silage is being restricted, then there should be two feet of feed space per cow.
If space is very tight then something needs to be done about it, as it will be too late next spring. I’ve seen some farmers let cows walk to the collecting yard to eat silage in a feed trailer or round feeder where feed space in the shed is tight.
On BCS, the target at drying off is to be at 2.75, but I have seen a lot of cows at a BCS of three now.
This means they are likely to be at 3.5 at calving unless they are put on restricted silage. It’s good policy to only feed dry cows what they need, which is usually around 12kg DM/day of silage.
If the silage quality is very good, dry cows will eat a lot more and just get fat. Fat cows are problem cows.
Farm Alert: The Irish Farmers Journal has launched a new product called Farm Alert, which is a text reminder service for farmers to remind them of vaccine and parasite timings.
Farmers choose their own vaccine and worming protocols and the system issues reminders seven days out from the administration date. It’s a smart vaccine and worming calendar that predicts, schedules, and manages herd health reminders using data-driven insights.
It’s designed to make what are often complex decisions around the timing of vaccinations and dosing easier. It’s available for dairy farmers now, with beef and sheep applications coming later. Farmers can sign up to the service at www.farmalert.ie and use the discount code OFFER25.
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