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The latest HerdPlus EBI reports have been updated and are available to view online by logging in to the ICBF website. The reports were updated online last week and are being dispatched to herd owners this week by post.
The reports will include the new base value for both fertility and production. These will both be for 2005-born cows that calved down and were milk recorded in 2007.
Before this, the production base value was 1995-born cows milk recorded in 2000 and the fertility base was sires born between 1988 and 1992 with 90% reliability.
The update has been carried out to make EBIs more comparable to a modern dairy cow in Ireland due to genetic progress of the dairy herd.
The new base will see the production sub-index reduce by €29 and the fertility sub-index will decrease by €42. This means that every dairy animal’s EBI will be scaled back by €71.
However, the change on a particular animal will also reflect the genetic evaluation during September and the update to EBI base values will not cause a reranking of bulls.
Watch a video explaining the changes below:
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