As the end of the breeding season closes in, with many farmers now turning the bull/bulls out with with their cows, we can take a look at the top bulls being used by dairy farmers.
This breeding season saw artificial insemination play a vital role to not only breed high replacement heifers, but to also breed high-value, quality, more saleable beef calves.
Dairy-beef straws and sexed semen straws sales were up in 2024 with overall dairy insemination down from recent years.
Agriland spoke to number of representatives from AI companies around the country to determine what was the most popular bulls being used and the traits farmers were looking for in 2024.
Progressive Genetics
Progressive Genetics saw an increase of 11% in sexed semen this breeding season with overall dairy insemination down by 13% in the last two years, according to Seamus Hughes.
The most popular bulls were the bulls with a balanced EBI, with a good production and fertility sub-index with decent maintenance figures considered.
Hughes said: “The bulls with extreme sub-indexes don’t sell as well.”
Some of the most popular bulls from Progressive Genetics this year included:
- (IG) Olcastletown Mojo (FR8709);
- (IG) Tankardsrock Teak (FR7929);
- (IG) Tinnakill Grandslam (FR9016);
- (IG) Olcastletown Captain SRM (FR9034);
- (IG) Tuohy Historic (FR8658).
Hughes further emphasised the increase in Aberdeen Angus usage due to the piqued interest in the Commercial Beef Value (CBV).
Interestingly enough, Progressive have seen an increase in Charolais and Belgian Blues being used with dairy cows.
LIC
Speaking to Aiden Cunningham from LIC, he said that there was a big demand for their daughter proven Holstein Friesians as farmers were focused on increasing both their percentages and kg/milk solids (ms) without increasing volume.
The top bull in demand were as follows:
- Bellamy’s DM Galant (FR9817);
- Arkan’s Backdrop (FR6730);
- Buelin Equator (FR7155)
Bellamy’s DM Galant offers reliability, fertility, percentages and solids and has nearly 4,000 daughters milking in New Zealand.
There was an increase in demand for for sexed KiwiCross bulls especially for Dowsons Whaktupu (JEX326), Gordons Flash-gordon (JEX233) and LIC Hustler (FRX257) who all offer a high level of efficiency and percentages.
In terms of short gestation bulls, Shrimptons hill Hereford bulls were the top selling beef bulls with also a high demand for the Kakahu Charolais which are producing really high quality calves with a nice bit of colour to them.
Eurogene
Agriland spoke with Eamonn Coleman from Eurogene who told us that the overall dairy sales were back with sexed semen making up over half the total dairy sales and dairy-beef well up again this year.
When it came to dairy selection, the common trend was farmers looking for high solids without increasing volume as none of the top four bulls were over 100kg of milk with the majority being over 32kg of milk solids.
The top selling dairy bulls for Eurogene were as follows:
- Oldabbey Torc (FR9094)
- Rochemount Lad (FR6981)
- Hanrahan Magnifico (FR6966)
- Lunar Red (FR9115)
An interesting trend across a couple of the AI companies was the increase in Belgian Blue and Charolais bulls on dairy cows as one Belgian Blue bull made the Eurogene top three dairy-beef sellers.
Speaking to Eamonn Coleman from Eurogene, he said there has been a notable increase in their usage and was probably down to the fact that Angus calves struggled to hold value this spring.
However, Angus and Hereford bulls still proved to be the most popular dairy-beef bulls this breeding season. The LIC bull Shrimpton’s Hill was the most popular seller with its -10 days gestation.
The top selling Eurogene dairy-beef bulls were as follows:
- Gabriel Mossy (AA4235);
- Deelish 1 Teddybear (HE6856);
- Knockagh Jubilant (BB8484).
Within the top eight selling dairy-beef bulls, there were two Charolais bulls and one Belgian Blue bull with the triple Angus mix, like LIC, proving to be a very popular choice among farmers.
Bullwise
At Bullwise, Agriland spoke to Terry Dillon who found that customers in the grazing market were looking for proven bulls with a capacity to take them to 9% solids, plus.
Their most popular bulls in the market were:
- Alias (Meander SB Alias-ET S2F);
- Anchor (Meandor Max Anchor-ET S2F);
- Checkbook (Symes SB Checkbook S2).
In the production market, Terry saw a drive for 600kg/ms with a big emphasis on capacity strength and a need to improve functional type traits.
Proven sire, Starmaker (Velder Starmaker) ticked all the boxes with new bulls in their portfolio Seducer P (Delta Seducer P-red) and Delta Smash also proving hugely popular.
In terms of their dairy-beef offering, their Angus range proved hugely popular as they are some of the best available on the Dairy-beef Index (DBI) and have a top carcass value.
The Triple Mix Angus, again, proved to be a great hit at the tail end of the season with its high conception rate and high carcass value.
Part two
Stay tuned for part two of this article as Agriland get in touch with Dovea Genetics, Munster Bovine, and Worldwide Sires, to see what their top sellers were and what the trends were this breeding season.