Strategies of European Fleckvieh Cattle Breeding to Optimize Dual-purpose Breeding Particularly for Beef Production

The Fleckvieh breed, while internationally recognized as a dual-purpose breed is primarily used as a beef production animal in Ireland. However because of ever increasing pressure to improve efficiency, it is now accepted in Irish cattle breeding that beef production characteristics should be included in the national dairy cattle breeding programme. This development was accepted following a comprehensive review of the national cattle breeding programme. This review was initiated by the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) which was established in 2000 to organize and coordinate all cattle breeding functions. These breeding functions were conducted by the Irish Department of Agriculture up until that time. ICBF is owned by the main organisations which make up the cattle breeding industry. These are: Commercial and Pedigree Farmers Breed associations Milk recording organizations and Artificial Insemination bodies The federation is funded by Government grant, a proportion of ear tag sales revenue and fees for services provided. Its mission is to ‘achieve the greatest possible genetic improvement in the national cattle herd for the benefit of Irish farmers, and the Dairy and Beef industry and members’. Since its creation, ICBF has undertaken a major review of the organization of all cattle breeding functions in Ireland. Research was initiated immediately in three main areas. These were, genetic evaluation, data management and breeding scheme design. Some of the material described in this paper resulted from this review, which is