The Irish Farmers Journal understands that Bill Callanan, chief inspector with the Department of Agriculture has requested a meeting between Teagasc researchers and representatives of the ICBF.

It is understood the meeting, expected to take place on Friday, will discuss the dairy breeding programme in light of future environmental and animal welfare challenges.

The meeting was called after an article on the results of the Teagasc study, called the Next Generation Herd, was published in last week’s Irish Farmers Journal.

The study compared the performance of average- and high-genetic-merit Holstein Friesian cows against high-genetic-merit purebred Jersey cows at Moorepark.

The use of Jersey genetics in the Irish dairy herd has been a source of controversy in recent years as male Jersey crossbred calves have a lower beef value compared to other breeds

Results from 2018 and 2019 show that the New Zealand strain of Jersey are outperforming the high-EBI Holstein Friesian cows on a kilos of milk solids per hectare basis.

The Jersey cows are on average 111kg lighter and have €37 lower EBI compared to the elite Holstein Friesians. They are also stocked at a higher rate per hectare.

The use of Jersey genetics in the Irish dairy herd has been a source of controversy in recent years as male Jersey crossbred calves have a lower beef value compared to other breeds.

The ICBF has recently published data suggesting that there is no difference in performance between herds using Holstein Friesian genetics and herds using Jersey genetics.

Teagasc researcher Frank Buckley describes the ICBF analysis as “not scientifically rigorous” and outlines a number of weaknesses in the methodology used by ICBF.

Bill Callanan represents the Department of Agriculture on the board of ICBF.

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