36.1% increase for beef breeding in the dairy herd since 2015

The use of beef breeds on the dairy herd has continued to increase, alongside a reduction in the use of Jersey breeding.

Use of beef sires is up 7%, for the 1,124,858 dairy calvings in 2020 to mid-April, according to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF).

The figure for beef breeding in the dairy herd has increased by 36.1% since 2015 (see Table 1, right).

Angus and Hereford continue to be two largest beef breeds used on dairy cows (78% of the total), but other beef breeds that have good figures for the new Dairy Beef Index have also seen considerable increases, such as Aubrac and Belgian Blue.

After several years of steady growth in the use of Jersey in the dairy herd, there was a significant decline in 2019, resulting in a 17.3% reduction in the number of Jersey-bred calves born this year-to-date.

According to ICBF, this clearly reflects the challenges associated with finding markets for lower value Jersey male calves.

The latest data from ICBF Sire Advice indicate that this trend away from Jersey is likely to continue for the 2020 breeding season (and hence the 2021 calf birth season), with a further 21% contraction in the usage of the breed expected during the coming breeding season.

ICBF HerdPlus expects that almost half of the 1.4m-plus dairy cows calves to calve in the spring of 2020 will calve to beef bulls. Most beef-bred calves in dairy herds are born from March onwards and into May, so they are not all included in the analysis of births up to mid-April.