A universal index for both dairy and beef farmers is needed to ensure calves of good quality are being produced for the beef industry, Rosalish Goulding of the National Cattle Breeding Centre (NCBC) has said.

"The one language and the one message" is required to ensure dairy farmers are breeding calves of high genetic merit, according to Goulding, who spoke at the Thrive dairy-beef farm open day in Cashel on Tuesday.

"I've met plenty of dairy farmers here today that want to do the right thing. They want to have good-quality calves to sell on to their customers,” she said.

Meanwhile, she said farmers in dairy calf-to-beef systems were “crying out” for good-quality calves.

While beef value and carcase weight are paramount to dairy-beef, maintenance is top of the agenda for the dairy farmer, Goulding explained.

As much as possible, use high-EBI bulls on the dairy heifers and increase the carcase weight of your beef bulls on the cows as her calving ability increases

"With the best will in the world, it's very hard for dairy farmers to figure out what their best cows are to produce a decent calf for dairy-beef," she said.

The whole focus of their dairy-beef programme is to keep calving ease, keep the short gestation and to drive on carcase, she said.

“We can drive on our beef bulls as much as possible, but at the end of the day, we are putting them to dairy cows.

"We need to find the sweet spot in dairy cows that works extremely well from a profitability point of view, but will also produce calves that can go through to slaughter sustainably," she said.

Successfully separating maiden heifers from second calvers and mature cows is one of the ways dairy farmers can produce better quality calves, she said.

"From a dairy profitability point of view, you could argue that there should be no beef bull used in dairy heifers because they are the highest genetic merit animals on the farm.

"As much as possible, use high-EBI bulls on the dairy heifers and increase the carcase weight of your beef bulls on the cows as her calving ability increases.

"We are still talking about minimum calving difficulty, but a much better-quality animal that they can pass on to calf rearers and calf finishers,” she said.

Commercial beef value

She also added that once the commercial beef value of the calf is known, it's very easy to ascertain the value of that calf.

It is important that the appropriate price is paid for the quality of the calf, depending on its genetic value.

Improved calf demand

ICBF technical director Andrew Cromie urged dairy farmers in Cashel on Tuesday not to look at improving calf quality from just a profitability point of view, but also to consider the benefits of improved calf demand in spring when selecting sires.