ICBF Beef Breeding Journal 2015-16
40 years of Beef Performance Testing On the 23rd of March 2014 – The National Beef Performance Test Centre, based in Tully, County Kildare celebrated its 40th birthday. The Centre was officially opened by the then Minister for Agriculture, Mr Mark Clinton on the 23rd of March 1974.
The early days The origins of the National Bull Performance Test Centre at Tully goes back to the 2nd Program for Economic Expansion, published in 1964, it was known as ‘The Brown Book’. Dr Austin Mescal along with Reddy Day, Harry Spain & George Foster wrote a piece in ‘the brown book’ about the setting up of a National Bull Performance Test Centre. They recommended that 100 pedigree beef Bulls should be performance tested. This was achieved in 1973 when the National Bull Performance Test Centre located at Tully, beside Kildare Town first opened its doors to Irish Pedigree Beef Breeders. Tully enjoyed instant success, particularly due to the sale of Bulls from the Bull Test Centre to Breeders in America. Irish Simmental Breeders were big supporters as it was evident that they could use the Tully figures to improve the price of their bulls to the U.S. The Shorthorn breed also benefited greatly in the trade in Bulls to the States. Callan Gates through which to feed the bulls were nearly put in from the start so as to gauge how efficient each bull was at converting the feed they were eating into liveweight. Ultrasonic measurements (Backfat & Eye Muscle) and liveweights were taken routinely on the bulls.
Minister Mark Clinton, being shown around the Centre by Ned Sheehy (Chief Inspector) and Denis O’Driscoll (Deputy Chief). UCD Animal Breeding lecturer, Denis Kelleher, is also pictured in the background.
Minister for Agriculture, Mark Clinton, cutting the ribbon to open the National Bull Performance Test Centre at Tully in March 1974.
Hereford Bulls at Tully in 1974.
In the beginning, bulls were individually penned. In the 1980’s this changed and bulls were penned in small groups.
Limousin AI Bull Bluethe AI Bull ‘Tully enjoyed instant success, particularly Belgian due to sale of ‘Hervin’(FL1) – born on the 16th March 1972. He was the ‘Opticien d’Au Chene’ (OUC)’ – born on the 16th September 1985. the Bull Test Centre Hetois inBreeders first everBulls Limousinfrom Bull to receive an AI Code. the ancestry of ain hugeAmerica.’ amount of Belgian Blue cattle.
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ICBF Beef Breeding Journal 2015-16
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ICBF Beef Breeding Journal 2015-16
A Simmental bull being held by Pat Flood in the 1970’s.
Dr Al Grogan produced the genetic evaluations on the bulls at Tully for well over 20 years.
An Angus bull in Tully in the 1970’s.
A Hereford bull in Tully in the 1970’s.
A Simmental bull before a Tully Bull sale in 1974.
Charolais bulls before a bull sale in Tully in 1974.
Simmental bulls pre-sale in the 1980’s.
Charolais bulls being halter trained in the 1980’s.
Mr Dave Beehan backfat scanning a Simmental bull at Tully in the 1980’s.
Tully was converted from about 90 single pens to group penning around 1980. Among reasons for the change were increased scale of testing, more commercial housing arrangements and more accurate measurement of feed efficiency. The late Paul Woods was the Engineer that supervised the restructuring. In the late 80’s DAFM purchased an Ultrasonic machine from Denmark to measure fat depth and eye-muscle area. The Danes were developing a machine for cattle at the time having successfully employed the same for pigs. Hair was shaved over the loin at a certain rib. Then gel was applied. The ‘head’ of the scanner was held against the skin and a picture came up on a screen. When a good image appeared on this screen, a screengrab was taken. The roll of film was developed and the fat depth and muscle area were measured from the negatives. (Old Tully photos – courtesy of the Irish Farmers Journal & DAFM).
‘In the late 80’s DAFM purchased an Ultrasonic machine from Denmark to measure fat depth and eye-muscle area.’ 3
ICBF Beef Breeding Journal 2015-16
ICBF ICBF took over the running of Tully in the early 2000’s. Breed Societies & ICBF put renewed effort into getting the best possible bulls into Tully. The feeding and management of the bulls was changed with bark mulch stand-off pads being put in. A sales ring and stand was also constructed. Bull Sales were then organized at the end of most of the performance test trials.
Charolais Bull ‘Kilcullen Ted’ who was sold in 2003 for an Irish record price of €23,000. Also pictured is Michael Bailey (PG), Jimmy Kelly (Breeder), Michael Barron (Manager) and Pat Flood (Tully).
Hereford Bull ‘Lisnalurg Vincible’ who was also sold in 2003 for €4,000. Also pictured is Michael Barron (Manager), Peter Casey (Breeder) and Noel Ryan (Dovea AI).
Limousin Bull ‘Milbrook Tanko’ being sold by William Smith and his father John at the 2004 sale for €15,000.
Number of Pedigree Bulls Performance Tested in Tully (1974-2012) 1400
Breed
Bulls
Breed
Bulls
1200
Angus
251
Piedmontese
13
1000
Aubrac
46
Parthenaise
24
800
Blonde
103
Romagnola
1
600
Blue
89
Saler
85
400
Charolais
892
Shorthorn
17
Hereford
161
Simmental
948
Limousin
1321
Speckled Park
5
Total
3956
Simmental
Speckled Park
Saler
Shorthorn
Romagnola
Parthenaise
Piedmontese
Hereford
Limousin
Charolais
Blonde Blue
%
Aubrac
0
Angus
200
Table 1: Number of pedigree bulls performance tested at Tully (1974-2012).
Up to 4,000 beef bulls were performance tested at Tully with Limousin, Simmental and Charolais being the most popular breed’s to go through the Centre (Table 1).
‘Breed Societies & ICBF put renewed effort into getting the best possible bulls into Tully.’ 4
ICBF Beef Breeding Journal 2015-16
Changes In 2012 – with a view to getting even more use out of the Centre the following 3 changes were made: 1. In light of the establishment of a new progeny test programme called ‘Gene Ireland’, pedigree bulls were no longer taken in for performance testing. Instead, the commercial progeny of new AI Sires on progeny test are performance tested. 2. ICBF commenced changing the feeding system in Tully to allow for feed intake to be electronically measured and recorded. 3. Meat Eating quality data also commenced being recorded on the carcasses of the animals that are slaughtered after their performance test.
Commercial animal at Tully in 2014
New Insentec electronic feeding system in Tully
Meat eating quality is now also measured on Tully animals post slaughter
Tully today Commercial bulls & bullocks are selected for purchase through the ICBF database. The target is to get 15 progeny from each Gene Ireland Young AI Bull into the Centre. Progeny are also purchased from proven AI Sires. Each animal is DNA’d to confirm its parentage. Nearly 1000 animals have been slaughtered to date (Dec’ 15). After the cattle are purchased they go through the following steps: 1. Acclimatisation Period (30 days) • This is the period where animals are sorted into groups of 5, fitted with an identification transponder & trained into the feeding system. • They are also vaccinated for IBR, BVD, RSV, PI3, Blackleg & other Clostridial diseases. 2. Diet • The animals are fed standard commercial concentrates & roughage. • The concentrates have 14% protein (Energy Content; UFL:0.955 & UFV:0.935) • Bulls are fed ad-libitum concentrates & a small amount of hay. • Bullocks are fed ad-libitum hay & 8kgs of concentrates. • All animals are fed morning and evening.
3. Performance Test Measures (90 days) • All animals are individually identified when they go to feed and can only feed on their own. The amount that each animal eats in a day is weighed. Each animal is also weighed regularly so the amount of feed that each animal requires to put on a kilo of weight can be calculated, giving us the results of 2 of our most important animal performance measurements: ‘Feed Conversion Efficiency’ & ‘Average Daily Gain’. • Linear Scores, Scrotal Circumference, muscle, fat depth & intramuscular fat measurements are also taken on every animal. 4. Health & Disease Traits • Lameness, Genetic Defect & Pneumonia data is also collected.
‘Commercial bulls & bullocks are selected for purchase through the ICBF database.’ 5
ICBF Beef Breeding Journal 2015-16 5. Carcass & Meat Eating Quality • After cattle are slaughtered in Tully, steaks are cut from the striploin of the aged carcasses and used to evaluate meat eating quality. These steaks are assessed for tenderness, juiciness and flavour by a trained panel of 10 trained assessors. In addition, the steaks undergo a number of laboratory-based measures of eating quality characteristics. • This work hopes to answer the following questions; – ‘Are there considerable differences in meat eating quality between our animals?’ – ‘If there are differences, are these in some way due to the animal’s genetics?’.
6. Genomics • All of the animals are genotyped using the customised IDB Version 2 chip (17k markers).
The Performance Test Centre has a maximum capacity of 250 animals on-site at the same time. Animals are moved in and out in batches. So when one batch of 50-60 animals are being slaughtered, another batch of the same size is just starting its performance test. The numbers of commercial animals from each breed that go through Tully is reflective of each breed’s AI usage in the national commercial suckler population. Table 2 shows the numbers of commercial progeny that have gone through Tully between 2012 and 2015, broken down by breed & by Sire. In just 3 years, 958 commercial beef animals with 203 AI Sires across 14 breeds have been performance tested.
MLJ ‘Mogeely Joe’ was himself performance tested at Tully and has had 21 commercial progeny performance tested through the Centre by the end of 2015.
DRU ‘Derrough Samual’ was himself performance tested at Tully and has had 20 commercial progeny performance tested through the Centre by the end of 2015.’
CWI ‘Castleview Casino’ was performance tested at Tully and has had 28 commercial progeny performance tested through the Centre by the end of 2015.
FHZ ‘Fakir de L’hez Kernai’ has had 20 commercial progeny performance tested through the Centre by the end of 2015
CF85 ‘Balthazar’ has had 25 commercial progeny performance tested through the Centre by the end of 2015
CBQ ‘Cambridge’ was himself performance tested at Tully and has had 13 commercial progeny performance tested through the Centre by the end of 2015.
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MLJ GJB RWB ZFL DVE KYA LZE TFX CUI GIP LFG LSC LWS MTL KTG S258 SYT ZTP KCE LHI WOA BUH LYH FHZ STQ BBQ VDV EKB VMP KYR RFC AJY AZL BYU CEQ CGG DBZ
AI Code
MOGEELY JOE H979 GOULDING JUMBO KING K436 ET RAWBURN LORD ROCKET F609 LISDUFF DANDY K895 DRUMDEEVIN DANCER CORNAMUCKLA LORD HARDY K222 LANIGAN RED BLAZE ET THREEBURNFORD LEANDER F286 COLCAGH UNION GOULDING PHILIP H339 LUDDENMORE FIONN G441 LISS MIRT C476 LAWSONS ROMEO C938 MINIT OF LISS KEELTIES GALLIANO MAINE DRAGON SANDYLANE TADGH TUBRIDMORE PRIDE K415 KILMONEY BRUCE LOUGH HARRIER COURTWOOD AIDAN BUDORE UTAH LOCHHEAD TYSON FAKIR DE L'HEZ KERNAI SULTAN 0580 BALLYFIN BORAT (ET) MASERATI VAN DE VLOEIKENSHOEVE BARCO VD EINDEKENS VILLABLUES EMPIRE ET KUBITUS DE BRAY RINGFORT CORMAC ET ADAJIO DE BRAY ROSS ALO (ET) BLAK 5075 BATY EPRAVE COLOSSE ET DES TOURELLE CABARET 7788 GRIGEOULE MANITOU DE BELLE EAU
Bull Name
Breed AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA BA BA BA BA BA BB BB BB BB BB BB BB BB BB BB BB BB BB BB
21 9 9 7 5 4 4 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 8 2 2 1 1 20 20 14 11 9 8 6 6 4 3 3 3 3 3
CF85 CSQ LGL DEZ PTE FSZ LZF MZT TUT RHI FWO CXY HWN MVO PBT FYB ICR KIB NPP ULH ALU CF71 FMA MDO OSC OSI CF60 CF61 DLJ DWF DZP FGG GHX GTN HUH IC26 KLU
Progeny AI gone through Code Tully BALTHAZAR CROSSMOLINA EURO LISNAGRE ELITE (ET) COTTAGE DEVON PIRATE FISTON CAVELANDS FENIAN MOZART THRUNTON NOSTRADAMUS ROUNDHILL DOC 1068 (ET) FLEETWOOD CLOVERFIELD EXCELENT HOLLOWTREE NICKOLAS MANDELA VERON (ET) PRIME ROBERTO BALLYLANNON FRANKEY ET ICARE LIMKILN BOSCO NIPPUR ULRICH ANNESKEAGH ULYSSES BALTHAZAR FARMAN MOGADOR OSCAR OLDGRANGE SINDURAIN LTINTIN ALEX DRUMLONE JUST THE JOB DONCAMILLO DRUMCULLEN DUKE LEAGAUN FIGARO GOLDSTAR ECHO DOVEA GIN TONIC HUTCH ROYAL VISCOUNT KILBLINE_1 CUPIDON (ET)
Bull Name
Breed CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH CH
25 15 14 11 10 9 8 8 8 7 5 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
CWI KJB ADX FL21 ERE PAM NHL OZS RHF HCA CVV MBP EFZ UTL FL22 FZM TVR FL27 FTY FTH CZH GZP ODZ UBN ZEN ION ONI ROX TKO AHZ FL25 LTZ MBV MXF RHN S666 S937
Progeny AI gone through Code Tully CASTLEVIEW CASINO (ET) BROOKLANDS F0959 ARDLEA DAN ARITA - BEN ELITE ERASMUS ET PALMARES NETHERHALL EPIC OZEUS ROUNDHILL DARA 1069 HAUTECLAIR CASTLEVIEW VIRULENT (ET) MILBROOK DARTANGAN ET ELITE FLAG ET ULTIME RI ARCHIBEAU LENAGH EQUALISER ELITE FOREVER BRILL ET BONUS LENNON FROSTY ELITE FRED ET CARMORN DAUPHIN GRAHAMS APACHE ODERIM UTILE- BEN BENZENE IONESCO ON- DIT ROCKY MILBROOK TANKO ACHILE BUT LACET MILBROOK VIC MILBROOK FILIO ET ROUNDHILL SATURN ET VERMEIL CHYTODDEN CONAN
Bull Name
Breed LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM 28 22 20 20 18 18 17 17 17 15 14 12 10 9 8 8 8 7 6 5 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Progeny gone through Tully
ICBF Beef Breeding Journal 2015-16
Table 2: Numbers of commercial progeny of AI Sires Performance Tested 2012 – 2015
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RBW S527 SFL SZS BIV CVY DEP RWM VDF WKF AKH BLQ CGF EVG FDI GUA GUY IDB MNZ ODY S671 S756 S970 SPV GZS KHO CZB KVG ALO LTY SFT
AI Code
BARBIER ACCORD DE WIHOGNE DU STORDEUR FLANEUR SATYRE DE SOMME BIENVENU DE JOLIJEAN CHATHAM VAN DESPOTE DE L'EAU D'EPPE ROSEMOUNT EMLYN VIGOUREUX ET DE ST FONTAINE WACKO VH BEEKHOF ADHEMAR VD SLINDONCKHOEV BOHERARD BULLSEYE (ET) CASTLECUFF BRADLEY EVERGREEN CHESTNUT (ET) FERMENT 9709 DES TIENNES GARRACLOONAGH URETYSON GENERAL DU GORTIL GAYOT ILOT DU BOUCHELET MAGNOLIA 0103 DE SOMME ORME DE SOMME JULIUS ET DU PRE ROSINE TAMHORN WARRIOR ET CANADIAN CLUB KERKENHOFSTEDE SPRINGHILL VAGABOND ET GOULDINGPOLL 1 SUPERDUTY ET KILRONAN HOSEA CREAGA DICE (P)(ROAN) KILFRUSH VANTAGE 2ND ANNALY LEO CHAPELTON LIBERTY SEAFIELD TITAN (RO)
Bull Name
Breed BB 3 BB 3 BB 3 BB 3 BB 2 BB 2 BB 2 BB 2 BB 2 BB 2 BB 1 BB 1 BB 1 BB 1 BB 1 BB 1 BB 1 BB 1 BB 1 BB 1 BB 1 BB 1 BB 1 BB 1 HE 2 HE 1 SH 4 SH 2 SH 1 SH 1 SH 1 REP UNV VGO VHC APZ DRU IS4 SEV KFY CQA SXD HKG QCD OWZ TBE ANJ AS12 CUF HTY KDD MIF ROE S546 BHU RIO DZJ LZR OUR PZB S804
Progeny AI gone through Code Tully REPAIR COOLNASLEE UNIVERSE VAGABOND CELTIC VICHY (ET) CURAHEEN APOSTLE ET DERROUGH SAMUAL SEEPA TEE JAY SEAVIEW TOMMY KILBRIDE FARM NEWRY CURAHEEN VIO (ET) STEINADLER HILLCREST KING CLOONDROON CALLING OMORGA BALDWIN 10 DELFUR T- BONE ANATRIM JACOB PLANET CAMUS FRONTIER HILLCREST NAUGHTY KEALOD DESMOND MILTON LORD- TIFFANY ET MONESS ROSCOE SAMARK SUPERMAN BALLYMACKEOGH HUGH RIO DRUMLEGAGH DENNIS LATASTER ERIC CORLURGAN OURSON (FR 02) BONAPARTE KNOCKANE UPROAR (ET)
Bull Name
Breed CH 1 CH 1 CH 1 CH 1 SI 25 SI 20 SI 17 SI 12 SI 6 SI 5 SI 5 SI 4 SI 3 SI 2 SI 2 SI 1 SI 1 SI 1 SI 1 SI 1 SI 1 SI 1 SI 1 SA 17 SA 5 SA 2 SA 2 SA 1 SA 1 SP 1
SCI THZ VKG VZN ABI BHO FL29 FQR FTN GTA GUX HTA OLI OMA ORS SIX STN TON ULE ULM VVI CBQ BZB VUL IRX SNX KCP LRY S848 PET IBO
Progeny AI gone through Code Tully SOUCI TOWTHORPE DUBAI VIKING VISON AMPERTAINE BRIGADEER BREEMOUNT HULIO CHOUCHOU BALLYGARVAN STUD FERNANDO FESTIN GEANT GENEREUX HORTENSIA OLIVER OMAR OURSON SIAM STRONG LITRON ULYSSE ULM VIVALDI CAMBRIDGE BOLIDE VULAIN SIREX SANSONNET KYLE CHAP LISNAGRANCHY CARLO ARBITRE PETER IBISCO
Bull Name
Breed LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM LM PT PT PT PT PT PT PT MA MY PI
2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 13 4 3 2 2 1 1 5 1 3
Progeny gone through Tully
ICBF Beef Breeding Journal 2015-16
Table 2: continued...
ICBF Beef Breeding Journal 2015-16
Performance Centre Results The weight, growth, feed efficiency & carcass data recorded on the animals at Tully flows into their sire’s €uro-Star evaluations. The trait that gets most benefit from the performance test is ‘Feed Efficiency’ which has a weighting of 18% in the ‘Replacement Index’. The data also allows us to continuously check that the genetic indexes are working and that the offspring of AI Sires with high stars are on average outperforming those bulls with low star ratings. What has been found in general when the cattle are being slaughtered is that; The 5 Star animals: • Had very similar weights to the 1 star animals at the start of test. • Had very similar weights to the 1 star animals at the end of test. • Were fit for slaughter earlier than the 1 star animals. • Had slightly lower average daily gains than the 1 star animals.
• Consumed less feed than the 1 star animals. • Had higher ‘Carcass weights’ and ‘Kill out %’ results than the 1 star animals. • Yielded more ‘High value cuts’ (Round & Sirloin) than the 1 star animals. • Yielded more ‘Very high value cuts’ (Fillet & Striploin) than the 1 star animals.
Education Now that Tully is performance testing commercial beef animals, it has opened itself up to Commercial farmers as well as Pedigree Breeders as a shop window for the Irish beef breeding industry. Several groups of beef farmers and industry representatives now visit Tully on a regular basis to learn about the most recent developments in Beef breeding in Ireland.
ICBF CEO – Sean Coughlan addressing visitors on a tour of the Centre.
Stephen Conroy (ICBF) explaining performance testing to a group at Tully.
The purpose built viewing stand full of interested farmers at a Tully Information day’
A large crowd at one of the many Tully Open Days.
‘The 5 Star animals had higher ‘Carcass Weights’, ‘Kill out %’, and ‘Feed efficiency’ results than the 1 star animals.’ 9