Breeding success with BW

AS A DAIRY FARMER AND BULL BREEDER, STEVE IRELAND RELIES ON BREEDING WORTH (BW) TO MAKE SMARTER MORE PROFITABLE DECISIONS.

Steve Ireland’s dairy farm in Temuka, South Canterbury has always had a strong focus on production, fertility, capacity, udders and genetic diversity. But bull breeding wasn’t originally part of the plan.

“Bull breeding was just a result of our breeding plan for replacements. We bred a top cow in 1996 and in 1999 her son was brought by LIC. We decided to flush that cow and by chance she gave us an incredible number of offspring with a large number of bull calves purchased. That success was the catalyst that got us into flushing females and continue bull breeding.”

Steve places a lot of emphasis on Breeding Worth, with specific selection for traits that are important for his own breeding objectives.

“BW is important to us for breeding suitable, top quality replacements. We utilise the NZAEL Bull Search tool to help select suitable sires. The advanced tool is useful for prioritising certain breeding values and traits, and it’s also useful for finding potentially suitable outcross and more genetically diverse sires.”

When it comes to NZAEL delvering a BW with genomics in the future, Steve sees a lot of value.

“I think having multiple BWs or animal rankings in NZ is confusing and unhelpful, and is leading to some fragmentation of the AI industry. Herd owners, particularly bull breeders, need to be able to identify and add value to top bull calves by having an independent and industry good genomic BW available.”

Steve is excited about the potential increase in genetic gain from genomic use in the industry and his role in helping other Kiwi dairy farmers.

“It’s very satisfying to know that the genetics that you’re breeding are helping farmers on other farms breed good cattle.”