How to make the best breeding decisions to maximise the genetic gain of your herd

Dairy advisor, Bernadette Bennett, joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s episode of The Dairy Edge podcast with advice for farmers on how to make the best breeding decisions so as to maximise the genetic gain of their herd. Firstly, Bernadette gives insight into an analysis she completed on 100 dairy clients: the top 20% had an average EBI of €186 and produced 498 kg MS while the bottom 20% had an average EBI of €121 and produced €451 kg MS. Bernadette explains that the difference in MS produced equates to €282 per cow (assuming 1kg MS = €6) or in excess of €39,000 for the average herd of 139 cows. Bernadette encourages farmers to use the Female Selector on HerdPlus to select cows that are suitable for dairy AI and identify cows with lameness, high SCC, poor temperament, sub-optimal fertility or low milk production for beef AI or culling. When selecting a team of bulls, Bernadette reminds us of the importance of the bull team, with a maximum of 15% of cows served to one sire. Bernadette also identifies traits for profit including improving milk solids and to achieve 9% solids (5% fat and 4% protein), the bull team needs fat PD of 0.28 and protein PD of 0.18. For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/ The Dairy Edge is a co-production with LastCastMedia.com