Cork dairy breeders scoop €10,000 prizes

THE FBD Trust Gene Ireland awards, which recognise best practice in breeding dairy cattle, were presented at the National Dairy Cattle Breeding day at Corrin mart, Fermoy, Co Cork, last week.

The €10,000 awards to the breeders of the top Gene Ireland bulls with progeny test results in 2008 went to two Co Cork farmers.

Tom and Maureen Horan of Ballyhooly won the award for breeding RHU, which has achieved an EBI of €141 (67% reliability) in progeny testing of 67 daughters in 65 herds.

The Horans manage 54 spring calving cows, averaging 8,000 litres of milk and 590kg of milk solids, with a 20% replacement rate.

John and Anne Kingston, Ballygarvan, won the award for breeding KSY, which has achieved an EBI of €135 (63% reliability) in progeny testing of 70 daughters in 50 herds.

The Kingstons manage 220 spring calving cows, averaging 6,500 litres of milk and 480kg of milk solids, with a 30% replacement rate.

The Gene Ireland progeny testing programme was launched in April 2005 by the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation and the AI companies.

Farmers who keep good records and are interested in dairy breeding are asked to inseminate their cows with high EBI young bulls from Irish cow families, and to keep records of the results. Gene Ireland is the main progeny test route for elite young sires in Irish farming conditions, and the target is to test 100 young sires each year. There were nine awards of €1,000 each to herd owners for excellence in data recording.

In the fewer than 80 cows category, the winners were: David O’Donnell, Kilmallock, Co Limerick; Michael Clarke, Ballina, Co Mayo; and Frank Dempsey, Minane Bridge, Co Cork.

In the 81 to 150 cows category, the winners were: Tom Hogan, Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary; Richard Coughlan, Mitchelstown, Co Cork; and David Kent, Mitchelstown, Co Cork.

In the more than 150 cows category, the winners were Seamus Quigley, Nenagh, Co Tipperary; Patrick Kelly, Lifford, Co Donegal; and Michael Britton, Thurles, Co Tipperary.