The ICBF’s Dan O’Riordan joins Stuart Childs on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss the ICBF Sire Advice Programme which remarkably has been around for 18 years!

Dan first explains what sire advice is and how it works to try and balance the milk and fertility sub-indices to deliver a balanced cow.

Dan also speaks about the benefits of the programme from preventing lethal gene mutation matches in the background, to checking inbreeding to maximising the beef merit of the calf whilst minimising calving risk to the cow with the objective being to deliver a live calf each time.

Finally, Dan highlights the numbers of sire advice being completed, how they have increased in the last few years but that there is scope for more. 

One of the other benefits of completing the sire advice is how it streamlines the breeding season for both the farmer and that AI technician with the decisions made in advance in relation to what cow is getting what bull and giving technical clear instructions on the same with options if necessary also. 

If people are interested in completing a sire advice for 2025, they can contact their advisor, breeding advisor or ICBF directly.

For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

The Dairy Edge is a co-production with LastCastMedia.com