Considerations for breeding season 2024, nutrition, sexed semen and beef strategy – Breeding Farm Walk John Ryan

On Wednesday 27th March we held a Breeding farm walk on the farm of John Ryan, Boulick, Gortnahoe, Co. Tipperary.

John is one of our 11 Teagasc Tirlan Signpost Future Farmers. Despite the very poor weather we had farmers from the area come and listen and ask questions on John’s breeding plans for 2024 including sexed semen, the importance of nutrition for the dairy herd and what role DBI – Dairy Beef index had on this farm. We had speakers from Teagasc, Tirlan and Dovea Genetics on the day.

John’s aim is to breed the best cows in his herd to achieve a cohort of heifers that will increase more profitability per lactation for his farm. In identifying the best cows and heifers to breed from will increase the speed of genetic gain for his herd. This all starts in December when John uses the information from EBI reports and all the milk recording reports to start selecting the nest cows for sexed semen. The following is the protocol that John follows when making his breeding decisions for his herd.

December 2023 John reviewed the 5 milk recordings completed in 2023. The Lifetime Milk Recording report is very good to review all this data.

LIST 1 – find all the problem cows – high SCC, feet issues, etc.

If they are not culled they get beef AI

LIST 2 – All the good cows are ranked

3rd Lact plus doing 560kgs MS plus

2nd calvers 500kgs MS

Heifers 450kgs MS

All of these received sexed dairy AI

Also in December an analysis is done on all the sexed semen bulls and what John wants for his herd is ordered. Delivered early January.
March 2024 – anything left to calve comes off the 2 lists. Cut off point is 1st Sire Advice is run

LIST 3 – Anything calved after 1st March gets Beef AI

Cows	Heifers
MSD 17th April	MSD 19th 20th April
100% sire advice	Synchronise to FTAI
Criteria on milk Solids per cow and calving date for sexed dairy semen or beef AI	100% Sire Advice
	Stock bull to finish

Tirlan Nutritionist Elaine Brady spoke on the importance of nutrition for the cow both now and in the weeks running up to breeding. Elaine explained that it was important to try and have the herd on a rising plane of nutrition. In the current weather conditions she acknowledged this was very difficult as grazing was limited and silage quality was average to poor. The key ingredient to the cow’s diet is having enough energy in it. A solution to this was if cows are indoors to have a third feed like 1-2kgs of soya hulls or beet pulp nuts. They are high in energy and can fill the gap until the herd gets back out grazing.

We then covered the importance of looking at the data and records collected over the calving period. Pre breeding checks are needed to find the non-cycling cows and treat them early so they can cycle before the start of the breeding season. John Ryan uses the data he has written in his ICBF white book plus milk recording data and the data from the collars he has on the cows to help him have all the cows ready in time. The slide shows that the higher you can have the submission rate then it follows with having a higher conception rate. If John knows an animal is not cycling he will organise for his local vet to call and handle the cow and get the problems sorted as soon as he can.

Finally we covered the importance of selecting of beef bulls for certain cows in your herd. Stuart Childs, dairy specialist in Teagasc and Alan Dillon from the Teagasc Dairy Beef 500 programme spoke on what traits to select your beef bull straws on like DBI, dairy beef index, beef sub index, carcass kgs, gestation length and calving difficulty. Like when you are picking your dairy straws it’s important to pick a team of bulls and the beef bulls are no different to this either. Ross Brady, the Twenty20 Programme Manager with Tirlan outlined what the Twenty20 was about, what farmers could gain financially from the programme plus the advice the team could provide to the farmer. Grassland management and animal health are central to achieving those targets. Their technical support team provides support to Club members.