A dairy-beef index has been talked about for a long time in the Irish beef industry and with more and more beef coming from the dairy herd, its rollout is becoming more important than ever to ensure dairy beef is a profitable enterprise.

Speaking at the Teagasc national beef conference in Tullamore today, Professor Donagh Berry said “the industry will at some stage have to move to DNA testing of calves to ensure accuracy around a dairy beef index”.

His comments come after Teagasc and ICBF have talked about the dairy beef index for four years and yet nothing has been delivered. It is a well-known fact that dairy farmers rate gestation length and ease of calving as number one when choosing sires. The problem is that these traits are not producing cattle with sufficient beef merit.

Many of the AI beef bulls used in the dairy herd last year were negative for kilo of carcase, which means that animals will kill out much lighter and struggle to meet minimum weight requirements.

Some beef farmers are already starting to see this with heifer calves purchased in 2016 as calves and are now finishing at very light weights.

Attention

It is a huge issue for the industry and it needs prompt attention. Many farmers who went down this road are questioning the profitability of the dairy-beef system with the current genetics that are being used on the dairy herd.

There are also some reports about complaints from other countries around calves that were exported not meeting growth expectations.

If these calves are not purchased next spring by farmers or exporters, who does the problem lie with - dairy farmers or beef farmers?

Carcase traits

The EUROP carcase classification system is currently used as the national grading structure linked to payment. There is an issue that the EUROP classification system attempts to predominantly guess or estimate yield and not quality.

Berry outlined that research is under way to:

  • Evaluate alternative technologies to more accurately predict carcase yield with the resulting predictions having potential use in genetic evaluations.
  • Generate the largest database globally on meat tenderness metrics of animals with the objective of generating accurate genetic evaluations for meat tenderness.
  • Berry said: “While the monetary value of improving carcase weight and EUROP is known, less is known about the monetary value of improving meat quality. Consumers can, however, take up to three months to purchase beef after a bad eating experience and, thus, there is monetary value for tenderness and other quality attributes.”

    Berry finished by saying that the objective during development of this new dairy-beef index has been to identify bulls that, on average, produce efficient progeny with good carcase credentials born with minimal fuss to the dam and farmer.

    He said the intensifying interest among the modern-day consumers in the origin of their food necessitates breeding programmes to take cognisance of current and impending concern on items such as temperament and polledness.

    Access to low-cost DNA screening tools provides a strategy to:

  • Verify parentage of each calf.
  • Verify breed composition.
  • Generate more accurate estimates of genetic merit for that calf.
  • This DNA-based estimate can be supplemented with ancillary information such as calf gender and dam parity to predict, more accurately, the expected performance of the animal.

    Such a technique should aid in identifying animals, at a young age, most suitable for different production systems and markets.

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