EBI details & Breeding Policy

Economic Breeding Index (EBI), November 2022

The table below shows the overall EBI statistics based on figures from the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) in November 2022.

Breeding Policy

With a herd EBI of €229 (see table above) we have to be quite exact as to the potential bulls we use on the herd so as to at least maintain and preferably to improve our EBI even further.

The aim in the Whiteleas Herd is to use high EBI bulls with +30kgs of combined solids, Production +€100, good fertility figures (at least +€120), maintenance at least +€15, carbon at least +€10, calving +€40 with plus figures for management and health. Type figures should not be worse than -1.5 and it would be great if the chosen bulls are positive for beef but we do not specifically include it as one of underlying criteria for bull selection.

Because we use all genomic tested bulls the aim is to use a panel of 12-14 bulls so that the EBI reliability of the panel is 90%.

With a herd of approx. 180 cows we keep about 40-45 replacements heifer calves. The selection of the heifer calves involves genotyping and selecting an equal number of calves from each bull used so as maintain the EBI reliability of the resultant group.

The EBI profile of the calves will be downloaded from the ICBF website and firstly sorted by sire, then by EBI followed by € production. The three best calves from each bull will be kept with the rest of the calves marked for selling.

A number of our bull calves have been bought by the National Cattle Breeding Centre and are available through Progressive Genetics with Stamullen Lunasa (FR6547) EBI €395, Stamullen Zackery (FR7926) EBI €357 and Stamullen Mozart (FR6433) EBI €331 the more notable of them.

Click the blue links above to see the individual bulls or visit: https://www.progressivegenetics.ie/