James Alexander was speaking at the Dovea Genetics autumn breeding webinar held last month, where the topic of the night focused on producing export quality weanlings, where our main export markets are and the sires to produce export and show quality weanlings.

Guest speaker James, of the Jalex herd and flock, spoke about his experiences with synchronising heifers, which he has been doing on his farm for a number of years, using noted easy calving Dovea Genetics sires Elderberry Galahad (EBY) and Ewdenvale Ivor (LM2014).

"We find it really good on this batch of heifers after coming into the shed for six weeks to a month," explained James.

"They’re on a rising plane of nutrition, they’re getting a lick of meal to keep their energy levels up."

James and the team have seen conception rate of "between 66% and 90%" on heifers served using a synchronisation programme at this time of the year.

Rates

James continued: "January calvers we do in March/April time before we go to grass are never as good (conception rates). They’ve been in all winter, they’re stiffer and sorer, it’s getting warmer.

"The silage that’s fed today (November) lasts better than the silage fed in March/April time. We only ever get 55% to 65% of that batch (in-calf to synchronisation), so I might stop doing them, unless I pull it back a few weeks, but then they’re calving Christmas time."

James is set to host an on-farm sale of 125-plus heifers and four bulls on his farm in Randalstown, Co Antrim, on 28 December. All heifers are in-calf to bulls carrying two copies of the F94L gene and are calving between January and April.

Vet

Beef programme manager John Lynch was responding to questions at the webinar on the night and urged farmers to contact their local vet should they be considering a synchronisation programme.

"Speak to your vet. We’re seeing synchronisation getting more popular and working quite well, but the best person to speak to is your vet. They’ll have to give you the drugs, they’ll have to give you the CIDRs, so talk to them."

Lynch also highlighted some of the sires available through the company to produce export-type weanlings and the cow type needed to produce these high-end calves.

Guest speaker beef and suckler editor with the Irish Farmers Journal Adam Woods outlined where our main export markets for cattle are, the type of cattle that these countries demand and where the future market growth for export is likely to be.

Adam also highlighted the price difference between 2021 and 2022, where the top third of bull weanlings in the 300kg to 400kg weight bracket on the MartBids database have seen a price increase of 30c/kg between 2021 and 2022 (€2.77/kg v €3.07/kg), while heifer weanlings in this bracket have seen a 29c increase (€2.72 v €3.01) in the same period.

The webinar can be rewatched by clicking here.