These unique awards for cattle and sheep, recognise the genetic merit of animals based on scientific indexes | The winner of the 2023 LambPlus Breeders Index Award is William Hutchinson, Co. Kilkenny.
William has been performance recording with LambPlus since the programme began in 2009 and lambed down 57 purebred Suffolk ewes in 2022. In addition to William’s Suffolk flock, he also run’s a flock of 52 breeding Texel ewes, 57 breeding Ile de France ewes and a flock of Easy Cares ewes which all lamb outdoors and are tagged at birth.
Willian actively participates in performance recording with LambPlus, maintaining a high Data Quality Index of 77%. He pays attention to avoiding inbreeding and focuses on selecting Suffolk breeding rams with high growth rates and maternal traits. William genotypes all breeding rams, hogget rams, and some breeding females, improving the accuracies of his breeding indexes. The Chapelizod Suffolk flock has produced many top-quality rams and is known for their exceptional performance in Replacement and Terminal indexes | The winner of the 2023 RDS Dairy Herd Index Award is Jim White, Co. Tipperary.
Jim notes that breeding has had cumulative effect on the development of his Dairy Farm. Where they try to do everything possible to identify opportunities for improvement in their management system and gain an advantage by breeding the most efficient cows for their farm.
As with our other award recipients, he is a great example of the benefits of continuous, incremental improvements, to drive efficiencies, reduce waste and increase profitability | The winner of the 2023 RDS Beef Herd Index Award is William McGrath, Co. Cork.
The McGrath family operate a full time suckler beef farm. The cows are calved in a 100% A. I. closed herd spring calving system. Every animal in the herd is sired by an A. I. bull.
William’s herd is an excellent example that by doing all the right things you can improve, and ensure, profitability and sustainability. His herd is in the top 5% nationally across a number of key performance indicators. He has shown great involvement in ICBF schemes and his herd replacement index has increased from €84 in 2018 to €112 in 2023. Has been involved in the Beef Gene Ireland programme since 2009 | The winner of the 2023 RDS Economic Breeding Index (EBI) Award is Brendan Meade, Co. Meath.
Brendan’s farm on the Meath-Dublin border is a model spring-calving system built on good breeding, high grass utilisation and a labour-conscious system.
Stamullen Doireann B2123, classified VG 88, was born in February 2013, and is now in her 9th lactation.
She has an EBI of €368 and has produced over 65,000kgs of milk to date, giving an impressive 5,567kgs of butterfat and protein.
She is the mother of Stamullen Lunasa, who has an EBI of €401, and over the last two years is one of the top bulls in the country standing with the National Cattle Breeding Centre | The winner of the 2023 RDS Euro-Star Index Award is Gerard Collins, Co. Clare.
Gerard is full time suckler and sheep farmer in the Burren in Co. Clare. He runs a split calving herd, Spring and Autumn, and use 100% AI.
ICBF have nominate Gerard for the Best Beef Cow Award for IE131022160727.
She is currently the highest non-pedigree suckler cow in the country, with a Replacement Index of €255. She’s had a calf every year for the last 13 years and is a superb example of an efficient and sustainable suckler cow. Interestingly, her sire was on the first Gene Ireland beef panel back in 2006.
