Lessons from Ireland in identifying superior suckler cows for herd success

Join us for our next webinar in the Maternal Matters series where we’ll be joined by Teagasc, Ireland who’ll share with us how they identify their superior cows to breed female replacements for future herd success.

We will use examples from the Grange herd, based at one of the world’s leading beef production research centres. Grange comprises 250 ha of grassland, accommodating over 1100 cattle and has the facilities to individually feed 300 animals for research work.

Topics to be discussed include:

• What traits make a good suckler cow?
• How to identify which cows to breed replacements from
• Data collected on-farm to help influence breeding decisions
• If buying in replacements, how to identify the best dairy bred heifers

Teagasc – The Agriculture and Food Development Authority, is the national body for Ireland providing integrated research, advisory and training services to the agriculture and food industry and rural communities

AHDB Maternal Matters aims to promote the production of heifers that are efficient, profitable and fit for the future. For more information please visit www.ahdb.org.uk/maternal-matters  

If you can’t make the webinar, please still register, as it will be recorded and sent to you afterwards to watch in your own time.

Speaker information:

Dr Colin Byrne 

Colin graduated from University College Dublin (UCD) with a degree in Animal & Crop Production in 2012. He graduated with a PhD from UCD in 2017 titled ‘the effects of early life nutrition on age at puberty and subsequent fertility in bulls’ working with Prof David Kenny (Teagasc), Prof Sean Fair (University of Limerick (UL) and Prof Pat Lonergan (UCD).

Following his PhD, he worked as a post-doctoral fellow with UCD and UL, working on developing phenotypes to identify metabolic disorders in cows and the effects of early life nutrition on brain development in bulls and heifers including how this regulates sexual development. Following this, Colin spent two years as a post-doctoral Fellow at Murdoch University, Perth, Australia, examining how interactions between genetics and nutrition influence fatness and resilience traits in sheep.

On his return to Ireland, Colin spent some time working in industry as a ruminant nutritionist before taking up his current position as Beef Research Scientist at Teagasc Grange. In his current role, Colin focuses on suckler beef systems, investigating the impact of animal genetics and nutrition on the biological performance of grass-based suckler beef production systems, and how these influence economic and environmental sustainability.