Doneen Marleen Hugo emerges from west Cork with a well balanced EBI
Thanks to the systems being put in place by the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF), users can be confident that such bulls are reliably proved successful in Irish farming conditions — unlike a lot of the top rated bulls used in Irish herds for decades.
In the August 2007 dairy bull proofs, DEU (Doneen Marleen Hugo) emerged as a top bull, reflected by an EBI rating of €135.25.
According to the National Cattle Breeding Centre (NCBC), DEU was bred on the farm of Gerard Murphy, Skibbereen, Co Cork. The bull was identified by the Dairygold Co-op AI team, and brought into their test programme in 2003. He was one of the first sons of Collins Royal Hugo to be tested in Ireland and he has out-performed his sire.
According to the NCBC, his index is very balanced, with €62.41 of the EBI from production, and €74.41 from fertility.
He should be ideally suited by the expected introduction of the A+B-C milk payment system in Ireland, and dairy farmers will be impressed by his plus 0.23% protein rating.
DEU’s proof is based on 149 daughters milking in 115 Irish dairy herds. Therefore, his EBI has 77% reliability.
Also improving in the August 2007 proof was RUUD 96, a half brother to the famous RUU.
Ruud 96 (RDU) has achieved an EBI of €123.12, with a large jump in his fertility value, which has increased from €29.1 to €45.92.
For high production with fertility, RDU fits the bill, being plus 419kg for milk, plus 13.5kg for protein, minus two days for calving interval, with a survival score of 2.28.
RDU is from the same cow as RUU, but by a different sire, Delta Webster.
* Another Holstein, O-Bee Manfred Justice, with an EBI of €203.42 (78% reliable) topped the August 2007 dairy bull proofs.
