A Look Back on our Open Day in association with Lely

On the 31st of August Dovea Genetics launched its First Dairy Summer Open Day - ‘Breeding the Cow of the Future’ in conjunction with Lely on the farm of Michael and Christine Callan and Sons just outside Ardee Co. Louth. The event entertained a large crowd with discussions taking place regarding current breeding decisions and practices which will improve cow lifetime efficiency.

The crowd got the opportunity to inspect the Callans impressive set up which featured a 5 robot ABC grazing system supporting 330 cows producing 596kgs of milk solids at 7320kgs with 4.46% fat & 3.68% protein. The farm successfully has a 96% six-week calving rate using only sexed dairy semen for his replacements and the rest to high index dairy beef sires.

Open day board 1 & 2:

Dovea Genetics Marty Hayes along with Sean Callan discussed where the farm has grown from along with its overall milking & fertility performance which saw 2023s empty rate of total cows at 12%. Along with this they touched on the advantages of sexed semen and synchronization protocols. 

Open day board 3 & 4:

Niall Duffy & Hannah Woods from the Dovea Genetics Dairy Breeding Programme talked about EBI, herd development and sire selection criteria. They discussed cow selection for breeding replacements focusing on her own development of yield on a lactation-by-lactation basis and conformation, focusing on feet & legs made to last in a large grazing herd. 

Open day board 5 & 6:

Dairy Beef was discussed by Beef programme manager John Lynch along with Darragh Giblin. Their talk highlighted the importance of the dairy beef index as a tool and how the dairy farmer has to suit their own requirements but also the needs of the market.