November 2012 newsletter

New Bulls 2013

There are some new bulls on the horizon for Spring 2012. On the Dairy side there are two new Dairy bulls. Mapleton Vly Zumba will be available in Progressive Genetics in March/April and Prides Prophet is available in Dovea Genetics since November. On the Beef side Progressive Genetics are currently finalising details on two new Beef bulls for 2012. Details of all new bulls will be available on the Website in early 2012.

Herd Health 2013 – BVD

As Pedigree cattle breeders it is important that we are leading the way on testing for a number of diseases such as BVD, IBR, Johnnes, Lepto, & Samonella. BVD will be the first disease to be tackled nationally, with voluntary testing in 2012, moving to compulsory testing in 2013. To establish if your herd has any disease issues, now is the ideal time to blood test a batch of unvaccinated weanlings, and if antibodies for BVD are found to be present we would recommend ear notching all animals to confirm if a P.I ( Persistently Infected animal) is present in the herd. Vaccinating your herd without first establishing if a P.I. is present, is a complete waste of money. It would be important for the Breed Sales next Autumn to be able to declare animals BVD Tested and Vaccinated. For further information on all the important diseases please go to the Animal Health Ireland website. If breeders feel it would be beneficial to organise a talk with Animal Health Ireland please let us know.

Dairy News

The Dairy Emerald Expo 2012 is scheduled for Cillin Hill Mart in Kilkenny on July 6th & 7th
Dairy Shorthorns will again be competing. A group of UK Dairy Shorthorn Breeders are organising a tour of some Irish herds in May 2012. We will have more details in the Spring Newsletter.

Beef Shorthorn – Exports to Russia

An opportunity has arisen for the Society to export a large number of Beef Shorthorns to Russia in 2012. All registered Beef Shorthorn weanling heifers and in calf heifers including Supplementary registered animals (Grade up register) are eligible. The Society will be able to facilitate the late registration of any suitable eligible unregistered animals which breeders may have for this scheme. We would ask breeders with suitable animals to send in any expressions of interest including approx numbers in writing to the office immediately. We need to ascertain numbers quickly. We would of course always ask breeders to be mindful of not compromising their own on farm breeding programs but surplus stock would be most welcome. A number of meetings with the Bonded Exporters will be arranged at suitable venues early in the New Year.

Beef Shorthorn Bulls – Breeding Bull Scheme

In a previous Newsletter we requested expressions of interest from Breeders in participating in this scheme, to date we have received a very small number of responses. We remind breeders again of the scheme details – we require good quality Spring 2011 born Beef bulls, the intention being to exhibit these bulls at Tullamore Show in August 2012 in a Special Beef Bull Class and then the Society to promote these bulls strongly during September, culminating in a Special Breeding Bull class at one of the Autumn Sales in 2012.

Autumn Sales 2011

A number of very successful Autumn Sales took place throughout October 2011 with some excellent prices achieved. Details of the top prices are available on our website in the Sales Reports section.

Judgimg Panel – 2012

The Society is currently completing a review of the Society panel of Judges as listed in the Shows Association 2012 Yearbook. We would request that Breeders who would like to be considered for inclusion on the 2012 panel would submit their expressions of interest to the Society by January 15th. Also any current or potential Apprentice Judges are invited to submit details to the office by January 15th also as we would like to include an apprentice section on the panel for 2012. Please note the date as the Shows Association will be going to print in late January.

Breed Journal 2012

We are actively looking for material for the upcoming Breed Journal. We hope to publish the Journal before Easter in 2012. We need content by January 31st 2012. We want current photos, stories, poems and all other masterpieces including older photos and stories from the past . We would love to see some new breeders taking out adverts is the next Journal. An advert in our Journal is very good value, giving excellent exposure to established and new breeders alike with over 700 – 800 copies published each year, these copies are circulated to all our members and also commercial farmers at shows and events throughout the year. For further information and advert rates please contact the office.

Beef Shorthorn Bull FinishingTrial

An offer of facilities to finish a pen of Beef Shorthorn bulls has been made to the Society. The requirements are that animals need to be 450 -500kgs. All animals will be weighed on entry to the facility on the same day and will be maintained as one group for the duration of finishing and will be all slaughtered on the same day at the end of the trial. If breeders have suitable animals please contact office.

Recording Shorthorn Data

We would like to encourage Breeders to record more Shorthorn Data with ICBF. Two simple steps which Breeders can take this Spring are to complete the Calving Survey in the Animal Event book when registering every calf and also weighing each calf at birth. The birth weigh can then be recorded on the ICBF website by going into recording events and entering the calf’s weigh with the date recorded being its birth date and the system will pick this up as the animals birth weight for future records. Breeders do not have to be members of Herdplus to use this recording facility. Breeders not using the ICBF system can contact the Society directly with this information also. If Breeders could make an effort this year to start recording these two traits it would be very beneficial to the breed going forward, as ease of calving and birth weigh are both extremely important breed traits and the ones which we have to monitor very carefully to maintain our reputation as a easy care breed.

Best wishes to all our Breeders for a Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.

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