View BQI in action at LIMO day
Dr. Steven Johnston and Kieran Mailey, Beef Quality Initiative Co-ordinators, College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise, Greenmount Campus.
The L.I.M.O. herd at Greenmount Campus is the venue for this year’s Northern Ireland Limousin Club’s Open day. This event will be held on Saturday 17 September, starting at 2 pm and everyone is welcome to attend. The event will demonstrate many aspects of beef production, including beef breeding based on the principles of the Beef Quality Initiative (BQI).
The aim of the Beef Quality Initiative (BQI) is to assist cattle producers to improve the standard of their breeding stock and finished cattle by adopting modern production management practices. It is achieving this by:
Increasing the number of cattle performance recorded and the accuracy of EBVs produced through:
- Developing farmers understanding of EBVs.
- Encouraging pedigree breeders to fully performance record, including the use of ultrasonic scanning.
- Promoting the use of A.I. in pedigree herds to improve the connectedness with-in and across herds.
The greater the accuracy, the greater the confidence that can be placed in the figures and the greater the likelihood of increased genetic performance.
Focusing on stock selection on EBVs through:
- Selecting for maternal and carcase traits in breeding stock by placing emphasis on the 200day Milk , Muscle Score and Muscle Depth EBVs. Currently BQI promotes the use of "Superior" and "Elite" genetics for breeding. Superior animals are in the top 25 percent of the breed for one of the three traits, while Elite animals are in the top 1 percent of the breed.
- Avoiding difficult calving by selecting on the Calving Value EBV and assessing cow size and previous calving records.
- Promoting the use of embryo transfer technology to increase the rate of genetic progress within herds by taking embryos from elite and superior females and placing them in females of lower genetic merit.
The event will provide an opportunity to view the purebred and crossbred cattle within the L.I.M.O. herd and discuss current and future herd breeding policy. Young stock will be on display illustrating the practical value of scientific selection principles.
Time for an update. Beef Quality Initiative participants discussing LIMO herd breeding plan with Dr Steven Johnston