FBD €200 Replacement Index competition - Leinster pedigree finalists

Richard Fortune,

Knottown, Wexford

My farm

We farm 270 acres just outside Wexford town. The land is split across 220 acres of grass and 50 acres of cereals. Spring barley and oats are grown for on-farm feed. I farm in partnership with my father full-time.

Animals

We run 120 suckler cows, most of which are pedigree Salers, with a few pedigree Charolais. We got into Salers years ago when we were looking for a cow capable of calving a good Charolais x calf and found the Salers were able to calve anything. We have had good success using Beguin, Baron and Geromino.

BDGP

We have been in it from the start. We have been recording information for years with ICBF and this is really paying off now with our replacement indexes. The indexes generally match the animal on this farm.

Future plans

I want to keep the breed true to type on our farm. We will continue to focus on easy calving and calving ability when selecting sires and replacements. We will also try and continue to build our customer base for replacement heifers. I’ll concentrate on the things I can change myself within the farm gate and hopefully get rewarded for it.

Quotable quote

“Salers sometimes get some bad press for their docility but we have found them to be similar to any other breed.

“You will always get one or two that are aggressive at calving but we have culled any problem cows and docility isn’t an issue for us now. I wouldn’t have 120 of them if docility was an issue.”

Breeding Key Performance Indicators

Herd replacement index: €198.

Heifer replacement index: €153

Calves per cow per year: 1.02.

Calving interval: 366 days.

Heifers calved between 22 and 26 months: 61%.

Percentage of AI-sired calves: 10%.

BDGP: Yes.

Regular weighing: Yes.

KT group: Yes.

David

Holland,

Bulacken,

Cullohill,

Co Laois

My farm

We farm 120 acres just outside Cullohill, Co Laois, 100 acres owned and 20 acres leased. We run quite a high stocking rate at 2.5 LU/ha and we are in derogation. We are all autumn-calving, calving 80 pedigree cows from mid-August to mid-October.

Animals

We have a 100% pedigree herd, selling Aberdeen Angus bulls to dairy and suckler farmers. I have a lot of repeat customers and sell all our bulls at home. We have built up a name of producing unpampered bulls ready to go to work when they go out the gate.

Sires

We use a mixture of AI and stock bulls. We tried synchronisation a few years back and achieved as high as 70% conception rate with it. We currently have three stock bulls on the farm. We need to be really conscious of calving difficulty now as the dairy farmer is looking for bulls under 2% calving difficulty.

BDGP

Our indexes generally follow performance in the cows. We have one- and two-star cows that are breeding well and I wouldn’t get rid of them for that. It’s about the average here. I couldn’t ignore the payment on this farm.

Quotable Quote

“When you are culling hard it’s hard to build numbers quickly. I’m generally quite severe on cows and if they don’t go in-calf or there is a problem with them they are out the gate.”

Breeding Key Performance Indicators

Herd replacement index: €90.

Heifer replacement index: €88.

Calves per cow per year: 0.97.

Calving interval: 372 days.

Heifers calved between 22 and 26 months: 100%.

Percentage of AI-sired calves: 33%.

BDGP: Yes.

Regular weighing: Yes.

KT group: Yes.

Brian Campion, Knockiel House, Rathdowney,

Co Laois

My farm

We farm 80 acres in Ratdowney, Co Laois. The farm is split into 66 acres of grass and 14 acres of spring barley. I farm part-time in partnership with my father. We started pedigree Limousin breeding in 2000 with five imported heifers from France and the herd has grown to 30 pedigree cows and five commercial cows. We are stocked quite high at 2.5 LU/ha.

Animals

We sell a lot of animals out of the yard every year and try and bring the very best to the premier sales in Roscrea. Most of our customers require two things – quiet bulls that are easy-calving. Gestation length is important to the dairy farmer and conformation and quality is important to the suckler farmer.

Sires

We try to use proven sires as far as possible. We have had good success with Bavardage and On Dit. We generally select on the replacement index to build on milk and fertility in the herd. We would generally find the females of the more muscular terminal bulls harder to go back in-calf.

BDGP

We use the indexes as a tool in our selection of replacements. We will look at the heifer’s mother to assess her visually to make sure she ticks these boxes. We look at feet, legs, milk and docility and then look at the index to make sure everything matches up.

Quotable quote

“Linear scoring has an important role to play in keeping the cattle we breed functionally correct. It also helps the reliability figures. My overall breeding aim is to breed a smaller, more functional type cow that works hard for me and makes money.”

Breeding Key Performance Indicators

Herd replacement index: €106.

Heifer replacement index: €125.

Calves per cow per year: .92.

Calving interval: 361.

Heifers calved between 22 and 26 months: 67%.

Percentage of AI-sired calves: 94%.

BDGP: Yes.

Regular weighing: Yes.

KT group: Yes.