A common misconception is that breeding should not be pursued as a method for improving health or fertility traits due to their low heritability. Low heritability does not mean the trait cannot be improved. Low heritability simply signifies that much more records are required to achieve the same rate of genetic gain as high heritability trait (e.g., carcass weight or milk yield). (more…)
One of the popular myths presented at this time of the year, is that proofs for young genomic AI bulls don’t stack up and that as a result, farmers would be better to stick to using daughter proven or even stock bulls when breeding dairy female replacements. (more…)
With the breeding season just about to start, ICBF HerdPlus have just undertaken an analysis of births from the dairy herd for the year to date, broken down by breed (more…)
Pat Donnellan, ICBF talks through the ICBF Dairy Active Bull List for Spring 2020. (more…)
What is the rate of gain in EBI? How does this differ for different categories of animals? Dr. Andrew Cromie, ICBF takes a look at the latest genetic trends in EBI. (more…)
With the 2020 breeding season on the horizon, ICBF has just written to some 15k dairy farmers.
The breeding update highlights how important it is to utilise all the best possible breeding tools for decisions for your herd. (more…)
“Bryan Kingston (ICBF) explains the role of the national breeding programme in the Irish dairy Industry”
G€N€ IR€LAND® is the name of the national dairy breeding programme in Ireland and it forms an extremely important part of the Dairy Industry. (more…)
ICBF has today published the March 2020 genetic evaluations. This has seen the EBI & Euro-Star indexes for all cows, heifers, stock bulls and AI bulls updated. The Animal Search, Active Bull Lists, Stock Bull Finder, sales catalogues and all online profiles have now been updated with the new evaluation figures.
