Irish dairy farmers know that breeding decisions have a lasting impact on herd profitability. The National Cattle Breeding Centre (NCBC) does not just offer genetics, it delivers scale, expertise, and proven performance to take the guesswork out of dairy-beef breeding.

As Ireland’s largest breeding programme, NCBC provides the widest range of proven dairy-beef sires, exclusively available through its shareholders Munster Bovine and Progressive Genetics.

The NCBC breeding strategy is built on thousands of real-farm records, ensuring higher conception rates, easy calving, short gestation, and saleable calves with high commercial beef value (CBV). 

NCBC invests extensively in its dairy-beef breeding programme to ensure profitability is maximised for both dairy herd owners and beef herd owners taking calves to finish. 

CEO and fertility expert, Dr. Doreen Corridan said: "Choosing sires from the NCBC Dairy Beef Programme means choosing exceptional fertility, calving ease, shorter gestation, and saleable calves with the highest CBV, all backed by the most extensive dataset in the industry." 

NCBC’s rigorous sire selection process, led by beef programme manager Rose Goulding, ensures only the highest-performing sires are available to herd owners.

With seven of the top 10 dairy-beef bulls in Ireland, NCBC sires are unmatched from a genetic merit perspective.

Each sire undergoes extensive progeny testing by Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF), resulting in highly proven sires for conception rate, calving ease, and calf quality, which can be used with high confidence by herd owners, providing unmatched peace of mind. 

Rose Goulding said: “The scale of our dairy-beef programme allows us to continually remove bulls that do not meet our fertility standards."

Farmers choosing NCBC genetics benefit from: 

A programme that purchases and tests the highest number of dairy-beef bulls in Ireland;
Superior genetics and superior semen fertility – delivering high conception rates, easy calving, shorter gestation, more milk solids, and higher CBV calves;
Higher kg of milk solids through higher conception rates, fewer empty cows, easier calvings, and shorter gestations;
100% Irish farmer-owned and committed to Irish farming;
Genetics exclusively available from Munster Bovine and Progressive Genetics.

This year, NCBC has introduced a new categorisation in the Munster Bovine and Progressive Genetics dairy-beef catalogues, designed to help herd owners make more informed choices that match their breeding goals. 

Elite Genomic Test Sires – high-ranking young dairy-beef bulls specifically selected for calving ease and high Beef Sub-Index (BSI). They offer exceptional genetic potential to deliver calving ease and high CBV calves. However, they are not yet proven for field fertility or calving ease. 

Rising Stars – bulls in this category are proven for superior field fertility and high conception rates. These sires come with reliable data on calving ease, gestation length, calf vigour, and calf quality. 

Proven Premium Sires – the top tier. These bulls are proven superior in all the commercially important traits. With thousands of fertility, calving, gestation, and carcass records, they excel across all key traits - with reliability often above 90%. These are the sires you can use with total confidence to maximise profitability in your herd. 

NCBC, Munster Bovine and Progressive Genetics work hand-in-hand to help Irish farmers achieve more profitable breeding outcomes.

Don’t leave your herd’s future to chance - partner with Ireland’s leading genetic and fertility experts today.