Prof. Donagh Berry, Quantitative Geneticist at Teagasc Moorepark, joins Stuart Childs on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss the future of Irish Dairy Breeding Programmes.

Donagh first explains that breeding is all about numbers. With the uptake in use of sexed semen, the pool of dairy bull calves being born has shrunk and while this was part of the objective of using it in the first place, there is a side effect which has the potential to slow genetic gain in Irish dairy.

He outlines the type of numbers of calves that need to be born each year in order to maintain the genetic growth that Irish farmers have enjoyed since the late 2000s when genomics arrived.

In order to continue this, it will be important to have a structured breeding programme that will see Irish farmers work with the AI companies putting some of their best cows in calf to nominated bulls with a view to delivering the bulls of the future.

Failure to do so will see the progress made in the industry in the last three decades since the introduction of the EBI slow significantly. 

However, Donagh is attempting to avoid this occurrence by bringing industry together during 2026 to discuss the situation, identify the solutions and get them implemented as quickly as possible.

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