Decisions on which cows to cull and which cows to keep are about to become much simpler for dairy farmers thanks to a new online tool.

COW (Cow’s Own Worth) is to be launched on Tuesday, 31 October.

It will rank each cow in a herd based on her expected future profit potential, helping the farmer to quickly identify under-performing cows, choosing candidates for culling and keeping the most profitable cows in the herd.

COW was developed by Teagasc, Moorepark and will be part of the ICBF HerdPlus package.

What’s included?

In order to rank each cow in a herd, the index takes into account a range of information including the cow’s EBI, the age of the cow, milk performance, health performance, the most recent calving date and predicted calving date from available inseminations or pregnancy diagnosis and more.

The aim is to reduce the time, effort and resources farmers spend on culling and retention decisions while getting more value from the information the farmers are already recording about their herd.

What’s the difference between the EBI and COW?

The EBI identifies the most profitable males and females for breeding dairy replacements. The EBI uses genetic information that can be passed on from parent to offspring.

COW, on the other hand, is for females only and aids in culling decisions.

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