My name is Shane King and I’m 16 years old. I am a transition year student at Mercy Secondary School, Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath. My interest in agriculture has been driven by my uncle and grandparents running a farm and butcher shop locally.
Sustainability is a huge talking point in the agri sector at the moment and with the ever looming target of a 25% reduction in emissions by 2030, the race is on to find and purpose solutions.
As part of our entry to the Certified Irish Angus Beef Schools competition, my fellow group members and I are investigating the impact that the genetic merit of Irish Angus cattle can have on an increased sustainable output.
In our project, we are researching the importance of good genetics and how it can have a positive environmental and financial impact.
Shane King.
Initial results from trials on ABP’s research and development farm in Carlow have indicated the potential for a 13% carbon reduction through the use of improved genetics in beef animals from the dairy herd.
Feed efficiency is also improved, with progeny from a lowest-performing bull having to eat 2kg more feed to put on 1kg of liveweight gain compared to a higher-performing bull. Not only are there environmental benefits to better genetics, there are many financial benefits too.
Research conducted on a demonstration farm, in conjunction with the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) and Teagasc, has shown a 46kg difference in carcase weight between the best and worst artificial insemination (AI) bulls’ progeny within the Angus breed.
At current market price, that leaves a difference of approximately €262 in the carcase value of each progeny from the best and worst AI sires.
Low genetic merit
However, with all these benefits in mind, to this day farmers in both the beef and dairy sectors are selecting bulls of low genetic merit. This can often be the bull that their neighbour used or the first bull the AI technician recommends and, at times, possibly even just a lucky dip in the AI catalogue.
Considering this, we came up with the idea of creating an app that can assist beef and dairy farmers in their Angus AI sire selection.
Our app is designed to match an Angus bull to any farmer’s requirements in terms of the Angus cattle they wish to produce. The app will break down the many traits and beef breeding indexes that farmers may find difficult to get their heads around.
Improved genetics plays a key role in not only a profitable calf-to-beef system, but one that can be much more sustainable.
With better genetics you can get more weight from your animals, more money in your pocket and, with good feed efficiency there will be less costs.
We hope our app will help farmers in choosing an AI bull with higher genetic merit, which will in turn assist in reaching our emissions targets in the future and making systems more profitable.
My name is Shane King and I’m 16 years old. I am a transition year student at Mercy Secondary School, Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath. My interest in agriculture has been driven by my uncle and grandparents running a farm and butcher shop locally.
Sustainability is a huge talking point in the agri sector at the moment and with the ever looming target of a 25% reduction in emissions by 2030, the race is on to find and purpose solutions.
As part of our entry to the Certified Irish Angus Beef Schools competition, my fellow group members and I are investigating the impact that the genetic merit of Irish Angus cattle can have on an increased sustainable output.
In our project, we are researching the importance of good genetics and how it can have a positive environmental and financial impact.
Shane King.
Initial results from trials on ABP’s research and development farm in Carlow have indicated the potential for a 13% carbon reduction through the use of improved genetics in beef animals from the dairy herd.
Feed efficiency is also improved, with progeny from a lowest-performing bull having to eat 2kg more feed to put on 1kg of liveweight gain compared to a higher-performing bull. Not only are there environmental benefits to better genetics, there are many financial benefits too.
Research conducted on a demonstration farm, in conjunction with the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) and Teagasc, has shown a 46kg difference in carcase weight between the best and worst artificial insemination (AI) bulls’ progeny within the Angus breed.
At current market price, that leaves a difference of approximately €262 in the carcase value of each progeny from the best and worst AI sires.
Low genetic merit
However, with all these benefits in mind, to this day farmers in both the beef and dairy sectors are selecting bulls of low genetic merit. This can often be the bull that their neighbour used or the first bull the AI technician recommends and, at times, possibly even just a lucky dip in the AI catalogue.
Considering this, we came up with the idea of creating an app that can assist beef and dairy farmers in their Angus AI sire selection.
Our app is designed to match an Angus bull to any farmer’s requirements in terms of the Angus cattle they wish to produce. The app will break down the many traits and beef breeding indexes that farmers may find difficult to get their heads around.
Improved genetics plays a key role in not only a profitable calf-to-beef system, but one that can be much more sustainable.
With better genetics you can get more weight from your animals, more money in your pocket and, with good feed efficiency there will be less costs.
We hope our app will help farmers in choosing an AI bull with higher genetic merit, which will in turn assist in reaching our emissions targets in the future and making systems more profitable.
SHARING OPTIONS