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The Hereford Society believes that the trend of recording ‘sire unknown’ for dairy-bred calves is having a hugely negative effect on their breed’s euro-star figures.
According to the latest available statistics, 522,458 dairy calves were recorded as having ‘sire unknown’, which made up 38% of all dairy births in 2016.
Hereford and Angus cross calves made up 415,852 of all dairy-bred calves, yet only 262,011 dairy-bred calves were officially registered as having a beef sire.
“Without a recorded sire, ICBF is unable to fully use an animal’s performance in genetic evaluations,” a spokesperson for the Hereford Society stated.
They pointed out that calf weight gain and carcass information would be lost if an animal’s sire wasn’t registered, which are factors that link back to the sire's genetic traits and impact on euro-star figures.
No calves recorded to them, despite knowing that they had calves on the ground.
Breeders have also raised concerns around the issue and highlighted worrying figures from Bull Tracker Reports from ICBF, showing a lack of calf registrations for working bulls sold to herds.
“I have noticed from the Bull Tracker Report that is compiled by ICBF that while many farmers are very diligent in recording calving details there are a sizeable number not doing so, maybe just registering the calf and no calving survey or maybe not putting down the sire at all,” Hereford breeder Joe Deverell, told the Irish Farmers Journal.
“I was shocked that in the recent Breeder profile published by ICBF on their website that two of the bulls that I supplied pictures of had no calves recorded to them, despite knowing that they had calves on the ground.”
The Hereford Society has asked ICBF to take into account time pressures on dairy farms and requested that if only one stock bull is active on a farm to automatically attribute all calves to him.
However, ICBF has turned down this suggestion and the Society is urging farmers to make use of the function to create a short code for stock bulls to speed up registrations if farmers with big herds are worried about time constraints.
BDGP tag delays frustrated farmers
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