The Most Used Sires on Dairy Farms this Spring

What are the most popular dairy and beef sires used in dairy herds this year? Below is a list of the sires with the most serves recorded during the first 6 months of the year (01/01/2022- 30/06/2022).  The results are based on the analysis of insemination data collected from AI technicians linked to the ICBF database, through their AI handheld system.

Table 1. The Top 20 most used dairy bulls used on dairy cows based on Total AI Handheld Serves

 

Table 1 Summary:

  • The number one most used dairy bull this year is FR4547 (IG) Doonmanagh Seville, with 20,413 handheld serves recorded. This bull was also the number one used bull in 2021 as well.
  • The second most used bull dairy bull this year is FR7047 (IG)Bauravilla Pistol Srm, with 18,406 handheld serves recorded.
  • The third most used bull dairy bull this year is FR6772 (IG)Ballycarney Denman, with 17,570 handheld serves recorded.
  • Out of the top 20 most used dairy bulls, 14 of them were tested through the Dairy G€N€ IR€LAND breeding Programme.
  • There was a total of 590,464 dairy serves recorded on handhelds during the first 6 months of the year.
  • The top 20 bulls accounts for 38% of the total dairy serves recorded on handhelds.
Table 2.  The number of bulls used, and handheld serves recorded by breed of dairy bull (01/01/2022- 30/06/2022)

 

Table 2 Summary:

  • Holstein is the number one used breed, with 522,561 handheld serves recorded. The breed accounts for 89% of the total handheld serves recorded.
  • Jersey is the second most used breed, with 26,402 handheld serves recorded. The breed accounts for 4.5% of the total handheld serves recorded.
  • Friesian is the third most used breed, with 25,485 handheld serves recorded. The breed accounts for 4.3 % of the total handheld serves recorded.
  • There were 985 Holstein Friesian bulls, 139 Jersey bulls and 122 Friesian bulls used.
  • There was a total of 1,503 dairy bulls recorded on handhelds during the first 6 months of the year.

Handheld AI Serves of Genomic Vs Daughter Proven Bulls

Over 72% of the dairy inseminations during the first 6 months of the year have been to young genomically selected (GS) bulls. This presented in Table 3, which shows the details of the number of inseminations from GS bulls compared to daughter proven (DP) bulls. The large uptake of GS bulls can be attributed to the difference genetic merit between these bulls and the daughter proven bulls.  The average EBI of the GS bulls is €73 and €77 more than the Irish Daughter proven bulls (DP-IRL) and the International Daughter proven bulls (DP-INT) respectively. GS bulls are 3-4 years ahead of the daughter proven bulls. The analysis clearly highlights that’s farmers continue to have increased confidence in the young GS bulls to deliver more profitability on their farms in the future.

Table 3. Count & Percent of inseminations, average EBI and reliability for daughter proven and genomically selected bulls on total AI handheld serves

 

Graph 1.  The proportion of Handheld Serves that were to Genomic, Irish daughter proven and International daughter proven bulls from (01/01/2022- 30/06/2022).

 

Graph 2.  The % of AI Handheld Serves by Countries of Origin for dairy sires used (01/01/2022- 30/06/2022)

 

Graph 2 Summary:

  • 84.4% of the recorded dairy AI handheld serves were to Irish bred bulls.
  • 15.6 % of the recorded dairy AI handheld serves were to foreign bulls.
Table 4. Top 20 Beef bulls used on Dairy Cows based on Total AI Handheld Serves (01/01/2022- 30/06/2022)

 

Table 4 Summary:

  • The number one most used beef bull in dairy herds this year is AA4640- Hw Farghal T516, with 20,776 handheld serves recorded.
  • The second most used beef bull in dairy herds this year is AA4089- Intelagri Matteo E.T (ET), with 17,349 handheld serves recorded.
  • The third most used beef bull in dairy herds this year is AA4088- Intelagri Maverick E.T (ET), with 17,121 handheld serves recorded.
  • There were a total of 264,285 beef serves recorded on dairy cows from AI handhelds during the first 6 months of the year.
Table 5. The % of handheld serves by beef breeds used in dairy herds (01/01/2022- 30/06/2022)

 

Table 5 Summary:

  • Angus is the number one most used beef breed in dairy herds, with 129,748 handheld serves recorded.
  • Hereford is the second most used beef breed in dairy herds, with 62,984 handheld serves recorded.
  • Belgian Blue is the third most used beef breed in dairy herds, with 31,682 handheld serves recorded.
  • There was a total of 602 beef bulls recorded on AI handhelds that were used in dairy herds during the first 6 months of the year.