There is still plenty of work to complete on improving the genetics in the dairy herd, according to Teagasc boss Pat Dillon.

Speaking at the ICBF Genetics conference in Athlone, he said: “We are on track but still have a long way to go in terms of improving fertility genetics. If we are to look at the average herd we have started improving the fertility, but, it’s not right to say we have fertility sorted in the dairy herd. We are still seven to 10 years away from where we need to be.”

Dairy beef index

Also up for discussion was the dairy beef index . When questioned, Teagasc geneticist Donagh Berry said there is no relationship between beef conformation and EBI but the more difficult issue is cow weight.

He said: “The dairy farmer wants more efficiency, a smaller and lighter cow giving more milk solids and eating less. The issue is if we put more selection weight on beef characteristics we lose out on the selection pressure for other traits.”

The morning's dairy session also heard from ICBF’s Francis Kearney, and Margaret Kelleher, and Teagasc’s Deirdre Purfield and Pat Dillon.

Sheep genetics

Running concurrently with the dairy session was a sheep genetics seminar. A big focus on the sheep side was the identification of genetics that will continue to drive improvement while keeping within production parameters.

Áine O’Brien, Teagasc, presented data showing that Ireland is a global leader when it comes to incorporating health traits into genetic indexes, with lameness, dag scores and mastitis now part of the Sheep Ireland health index.

Taking lameness as an example, O'Brien said that reducing the incidence of lameness in a 100-ewe flock from 10% to 5% is worth €1.20 per ewe.

Meanwhile, Dr Fiona McGovern presented the first glimpse of a new project called Greenbreed, which will collect data to calculate greenhouse gas emissions and set parameters so that farmers are in a position to select sheep that produce lower emissions.