Teagasc advice for dairy farmers: Six years on, genomic dairy bulls still €50 ahead

Teagasc and ICBF have compared the highest EBI bulls from the 2011 ICBF Active Bull list, and concluded that using a team of high-EBI Genomically selected (GS) Bulls, rather than daughter-proven (DP) bulls worked better for farmers.

Recent changes to proofs for genomic bulls left many farmers wondering if they should continue using GS bulls this spring, or revert back to DP, but the comparison confirmed the need to use teams of GS bulls, on average, €50 ahead of DP bulls at any given point in time.

The comparison included SOK, KOZ and FLT in the GS category, and BHZ, BYJ and GMZ in the DP category.