Why Newford places such an emphasis on bull selection
Originating from the dairy herd and thus boasting excellent milk and fertility figures, the Newford cow has one downside – their ability to pass on beef ‘power’ to their progeny.
Lying within the top 2% nationally for Replacement Index, with an average value of €156, the task of outlining the strategy to overcome this challenge was handled by Chris Daly, ICBF and Dr. Cliona Ryan, Teagasc Beef Geneticist, at the Newford Demonstration Farm Open Day on April 22.
“Every farmer will have different systems and different cow types. The important thing is to focus on what you are trying to produce, because that dictates what you are going to breed,” Chris Daly told the farmers in attendance.
By identifying the strengths and weaknesses of your cows, he added, farmers can make improvements through proper sire selection.
“The Newford herd’s strengths are milk and fertility,” Chris Daly explained, “but the herd’s carcass weight and conformation figures are on the low side, and this is being countered by selecting sires with high carcass weight and conformation.”
Despite this obvious challenge, Chris Daly noted that the herd does have many positives:
“The Newford cow is quite efficient, with excellent fertility and an average calving interval of 366 days. Milk performance is good, and the adjusted 200-day weanling weight is 310kg for the males. Eighty-five per cent of the cows calve within six weeks, making for a compact calving pattern, which is important for efficiency and for managing stock together.
“The docility of these cows is also very good, and they are a moderate-sized cow – not too big and not too small – with an average mature cow weight of 640kg,” the ICBF representative explained.
Selecting sires
Also addressing the farmers in attendance and expanding upon Newford’s sire selection policy, Dr. Cliona Ryan commented: “Bull selection is critical for the Newford herd to make up for what the cows do not have. This farm is 100% AI, allowing for a wide range of sires to be selected to match each individual cow or heifer.”
With replacement heifers – a mix of Angus, Hereford and Aubrac – sourced from the Tipperary Dairy Calf to Beef Demonstration farm, Dr. Ryan added: “Newford focuses solely on high Terminal Index sires that are five-star both within and across breed. Improving the carcass weight of the progeny is a key target. The sires being used have at least 24kg for carcass weight, ranging from 24kg up to 52kg for carcass weight in 2025.”
“Conformation is also considered when selecting sires, with a minimum of 2 for cows and 1.9 for heifers. Last year, the range for the bulls used was between 2.0 and 3.2 for conformation,” Dr. Ryan added.
Pictured on the Genetics and Breeding Stand at the Open day were : Matthew Murphy, Dawn Meats, Cliona Ryan, Teagasc and Chris Daly ICBF.
Given the labour efficiency focus at Newford, Dr. Ryan also noted that reducing the risk of difficult calvings is a priority for the breeding programme.
“For cows, sires with a calving difficulty figure of less than 7% are used, while for heifers the target is less than 5.2% for heifer calving difficulty. Sires selected have high reliability figures, especially for calving difficulty, because we really do not want any trouble at calving, particularly with the heifers,” Dr. Ryan added.
The results of this breeding policy were discussed by Matthew Murphy, Dawn Meats at the Open Day. In 2025, heifers finished at Newford produced an R=3= carcass of 331kg at 20.7 months of age, while their steer counterparts finished at 372kg, R=3= grading carcasses at 21.8 months of age.
Teagasc Advisor, Keith Fahy spoke to Dr. Ryan at the Newford Open Day to find out more about her presentation:
For full insights from the Newford Open Day, access the event proceedings here.
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