The focus of episode two was on breeding and fertility management on Irish dairy farms.

The main focus of the second webinar was around the use of sexed semen and the use of synchronisation programme on Irish dairy farms.

Martin Kavanagh returned to chair the panel, but he was joined by five new farmers and experts:

Martin Kavanagh asked Trevor Hanly, a breeding advisor with Progressive Genetics, about how he advises farmers to introduce sexed semen on their farm.

"I advise farmers to use sexed semen with caution and on select, high fertility cows," he explained.

"I would also make sure that a team of bulls is picked. If you have 20 heifers, you should use three bulls. I would then advise that they use sire advice to match the bulls and heifers."

Denis Howard, a veterinary surgeon with Munster Bovine, spoke about the 90% purity of sexed semen and number of bulls being sexed in Ireland currently.

"The 90% purity, basically means that if you have 10 pregnancies from sexed straws, nine of them are going to heifers," Denis stated.

2022 is the first time bulls have been sexed in Ireland for commercial use. Giving some insight, Denis said: "The capacity in Moorepark is 70,000 straws split between all the AI companies.

"All the high bull, they are able to be collected from the stud in Mallow, the big thing this year it is our top bulls that are being sexed and have them available for farmers."

Martin then asked Denis about field fertility in these bulls. Commenting on this Denis said: "We have talked about reducing risk and the same goes for sexed semen.

"The bulls that are selected are very good for field fertility," he said.