Module GR003Farm Performance Measurement
Project No. 5 for farms with Dairy Herds
Project Title: Interpreting Dairy Herd –ICBF Data & Breeding indices
Learner Name
Name of Benchmark or visited farmer
______
Date of Visit: ______
Mark Awarded (15% max) ______
(2% for visit report) (B)______
(2% for attendance and participation) (C)______
Total project mark (A) + (B) + (C) ______
/Funded by the Irish Government under the National Development Plan, 2007-2013
Contents Page
Instructions: Complete pages relevant to your farm
Section / Page / Available Marks / Mark1 / Guidelines on using ICBF
1.1 Recording EBI for stock and AI bulls
1.2 Looking up EBI
1.3 Recording Missing Sires
1.4 Recording Ai / Natural Services
1.5 Operating ICBF Sire Advice Facility
1.6 Printing Reports
1.7 Understanding the Economic Breeding Index (EBI) / 1 – 9 / Zero
2 / Stated aim of the project
2.1 Set Realistic Targets
2.2 Set EBI Targets / 10
11 / 15
3 / Breeding Management of the Herd
3.1 Comment on differences between benchmark and home/given herd
3.2 Use ICBF Sire Advice Facility / 12 / 20
4 / Interpret your Herd Reports / 13 / ______
4.1 / Interpret your EBI Report / 13 / 20
4.2 / Interpret your End of Season Fertility Report / 14 / 20
4.3 / Interpret your Dairy Calving Report / 16 / 20
5 / Breeding Strategy for your Herd / 17 / ------
5.1 Increasing your EBI / 17 / 15
5.2 Improving Fertility / 17 / 15
5.3 Improve calving / 18 / 15
6 / Attach ICBF Reports to this section / 19 / 10
Total Marks for Benchmark Exercise (150 Max) / 150
Total marks for this project ÷ 10 (A) / 15 / (A)
7 / Discussion Report (40 marks Max) / Page 20 / 20
Total marks for this discussion group meeting participation and report÷ 10 / 2 / (B)
Attendance and participation / 20
Attendance and Participation ÷ 10 (C) / 2 / (C)
11_04_2014
Section 1 Guidelines on using ICBF
Inputting and updating information on ICBF
Section 1.1 Record EBI for Stock & AI bulls used in herd
In order to get as complete information as possible, it is important to supply missing data to ICBF. There are many events that can be recorded on ICBF to assist in giving the most complete advice as possible. The image below shows the events that can be currently recorded.
The following pages describe what you need to do for the purposes of this project.
Section 1.2 Looking up EBI
You are required to look up and print the EBI of Bulls used in your herd and attach to the reports into section 7. As you interpret the reports consider whether the traits displayed by the bulls you use will contribute to increasing your overall herd EBI.
a. On the www.icbf.com homepage enter the Tag Number or Name or AI Code and select Search.
b. The EBI results for the bull will be generated as follows:
c. Repeat and Print for all bulls used (or intending to use).
Section 1.3 Recording Missing Sires
On joining ICBF you will be requested to complete ‘missing sires’ for any females in the herd with missing sire records (if known).
When you select ‘Record Missing Sires’, you will see a screen similar to the example shown below.
Note: Select the ‘Record Missing Sires’ option rather than the ‘Record Missing Sires (incl historic)’ option for this project.
You should add sires where they are known and click on ‘Save Data’ at the bottom of the screen when finished so that the ICBF database can be updated.
Note: Before updating Missing Sire records, inform your tutor of numbers involved and show them the details again when you have completed the exercise.
Your tutor will then verify that you have performed this task by signing the ‘Confirmation of ‘Events Recording’ Completed’ at front of this document.
Section 1.4 Recording AI/Natural Services
This screen shows a list of all the cows/heifers in your herd that are eligible to be served. Note that AI serves or stock bull serves can be recorded on this page.
Instructions
1. For each animal served record the sire and the date of serve. You can record different sires on different animals and different dates on different animals.
2. For a cow/heifer that's been served more than once then you must save each serve separately i.e. you can only save 1 serve per cow at a time.
3. Use AI codes, tags, herdbook numbers or jumbos of bulls within your own herd.
4. If one of the bulls entered is incorrect then a message will appear in red telling you so. You will not be able to save the data while there are any of these error messages displaying.
5. To save the data press the "Save Data" button at the end of the page.
6. If you have any problems using this page then use the Contact Support option to request assistance.
Example
Section 3.5 Operate ICBF Sire Advice Facility
When you select ‘Sire Advice’ on the Home – HerdPlus page, you will be shown the Sire Advice Home Page with a breakdown of your Herd EBI. An example page is shown below.
To proceed from this page, there are three options:
· Suggested Bulls – Click here to see the suggested bulls for your herd
· Select Bulls using Traits – Click here if you want to find bulls with specific traits
· Manually Enter Bulls – Click here if you already know which bulls you wish to use.
The criteria used by ICBF to choose “Suggested Bulls” is outlined in top right hand corner of screen. The program finds the group of bulls that provide the best compromise between all these objectives.
If you wish to use bulls from a particular Breed or AI company then you can select the Breed(s) and company (s) that you wish to use and click on “Re-Run the Bull Selection”. If you do this the program will re-run and find the most suitable bulls for your herd from within the Breed(s) and company (s) that you choose.
An example of what you will see if you select “Suggested Bulls” is shown below.
Example of “Suggested Bulls”
Using this list you select the bulls you wish to use on cows and heifers by ticking the boxes on the right of the screen and then select ‘NEXT’ at bottom of screen to get the following details:
Once you are happy with the selection you press the ‘Allocate Cows to Bulls’ and the program will allocate the cows to the selected bulls.
Section 1.6 Printing Reports
Print off the required reports for your dairy herd and interpret them by completing the questions on the following pages. When completed you must insert the reports in the Section 7.
The screen shot below is a listing of all the reports available for a dairy/beef herd. Simply click on the link to the right of the report type you want to view. The date the report was last updated is also displayed. These static reports open using Adobe Acrobat reader.
Section 1.7 Understanding the Economic Breeding Index (EBI).
What is EBI?
EBI is a single figure profit index aimed at helping farmers identify the most profitable bulls and cows for breeding dairy herd replacements. It comprises of information on seven sub-indexes related to profitable milk production. These are; (1) Milk production, (2) Fertility, (3) Calving performance, (4) Beef carcass (5) Maintenance (6) Management and (7) Health. A summary of the sub-indexes,
including traits and relative weightings for traits in the EBI are given in Table 1. The economic values in the index are based on data collected from Irish Dairy Farms and the Dairy Industry. Table 1. Economic values and % emphasis of the various traits in the EBI formula.
Genetic Evaluations
Knowing the genetic merit of your herd is a key component to successfully improving traits of importance on your farm. The observed performance (e.g. 305 day milk yield) of an individual cow depends on two things:
a) the genetic merit of the cows
b) the environment in which she is performing
Genetic evaluations attempt to disentangle the effects of genes and the environment in order to select animals that have high genetic merit, and not those that perform well simply because they are well managed and fed. For example, if Cow X has a much higher genetic merit for milk yield than Cow Y, Cow Y will need much more feed to milk the same as cow X. Alternatively, if Cow X and Y are fed the same, Cow X will outperform Cow Y for milk yield. Genetic evaluations allow us to directly compare animals that are performing in many environments, by removing the part of the observed performance that is due to the environment and management of the cows.
We cannot directly alter the genetic merit of an individual cow, however improvements can be made for specific traits in the offspring of the cow provided she is bred to a sire that is better than she is for those traits. Therefore it is important to know both the genetic merit of the cow and the sire in order to make genetic improvements in traits of economic importance.
How do I interpret the Predicted figures for Milk kg, Fat kg, Protein kg, etc.?
We call these Predicted Transmitting Ability figures (PTAs). An animal’s PTA indicates the amount of a particular trait an animal is expected to pass on to its progeny relative to the base population (See Table 1). The PTA is equal to half of its own Breeding Value since a cow only passes on half her genes to her offspring. All values on the EBI report are expressed as PTA. Information on bulls (in catalogues, bull search, etc.) is also presented in terms of PTA.
Milk kg / Fat kg / Prot kg / Fat% / Prot% / CI days / Surv%Observed Performance / 5192 / 196 / 171 / 3.79 / 3.3 / 388 / 83
Table 1. Base Population Performance – Cows born in 1995 and milk recorded in 2000
Example:
Cow 972 (Fig 1. below) has a Milk kg PTA of +167kg and she is mated to a bull with a Milk kg of +233kg. The resultant offspring will have a potential for milk (i.e. Breeding Value) of +400kg.
Fig 1. Example of an animal’s PTA in the EBI Report
Does this mean the offspring, assuming a heifer, will actually milk 400Kg more than the “base cow” (i.e. 5190kg + 400kg = 5590kg)? The answer always depends on the level of management – the heifer will be genetically capable of milking 400kg more than the base cow but how much she physically outperforms the base cow will be dependent on the management of the animal. In a higher input environment she could perform much more than this or in a lower input environment it may be less than this.
Key Point: Although the potential of the offspring heifer is +400kg, she will only pass on half of this to her own offspring, therefore her PTA for milk kg is +200kg (½ her Breeding Value) and this is what is displayed on the EBI report.
In simple terms, in order to improve the potential of a cow’s offspring to milk more, you need to use bulls that have a higher PTA for milk kg than the cow itself. The same applies to all other traits, be it milk solids yield, fat and protein % or calving interval and survival.
When selecting a team of bulls for your cows you should pick bulls that are higher than the herd PTA for the traits you want to improve. To improve individual cow weaknesses use the cow PTA to help you determine the best bull to use on her.
Overall Aim of the Project: To improve the EBI of the home dairy herd
Section 2 Set Realistic Targets
Compare your performance with that of the benchmark / visited farm and set realistic targets with your tutor
Benchmark / visited farm / Home / given farm / Realistic target for home / given farmYield per cow (litres)
Butter fat %
Protein %
% conception to 1st service
Infertility %
Meals / cow/year
Milk price
(c/ltr)
No. of calves born alive
No. of calves born dead
Calf mortality %
% of herd bred to AI
Section 2.2 Look up your herd’s EBI and Set Targets
Look up and print the EBI of Bulls used in your herd and attach to the reports section 7. As you interpret the reports, consider whether the traits displayed by the bulls you use will contribute to increasing your overall herd EBI.
Set EBI Targets
With help from your tutor, set realistic targets for your own farm
Performance Target / Benchmark Farm / Own FarmCurrent performance / Target performance
Overall Herd EBI **
Calves EBI **
Yearling EBI **
Milk solids %
Culling %
Replacement rate
Calving interval
In order to achieve the target EBI, in the herd, identify what performance target needs to be improved and list ways of achieving it
1. ______
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2. ______
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3. ______
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4. ______
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Section 3 Breeding Management of the Herd
3.1 Compare the management of the home / given herd with that of the benchmark / visited farm
Benchmark / visited farm / Home /given farm / CommentsAI or natural service used / ______
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Breeds of cow(s) in herd / ______
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Breed of stock bull (s) in herd / ______
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Breed(s) of Replacement heifers in herd / ______
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Sourcing of replacements (Purchased Heifers / cows, Homebred) / ______
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Section 3.2