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Irish Farmers Co-operative
Dovea is a farmers cooperative in Co. Tipperary, right in the heart of Ireland.
Both beef and dairy semen has been supplied to the surrounding counties since 1952. Over the last 5 years the company has gone nationwide and now supplies their products through the whole of Ireland.
The main aim of the company is to supply the Irish farmer with the right genetics for his or her enterprise. Around 90 % percent of Irish dairy farmers produce their milk through very low cost, grassbased production systems. This means that they are looking for genetics with outstanding daughter fertility, longevity and robustness. With their unique Friesian stud Dovea is very well situated to fulfil their demands.
But it is not just the Irish dairy farmer who is looking for this type of genetics. Semen is now exported worldwide : Chile, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Holland etc. In the latest UK Interbull ranking for Friesians, Dovea has the top-3 bulls and 7 bulls in the top-10.
 Beef farming is the norm in Ireland with a national suckler cow herd of around a million cows. Cross breeding, to take advantage of heterosis and maternal traits, is the wellknown route most of these farmers take. Hence the very broad spectrum of beef bulls on offer from Dovea Genetics.
Beef quality is going to more and more important in the future and Dovea is very much focusing on this. The fact that many dairy cows are also inseminated with beef semen means that easy calving sires of nearly all breeds also have to be available.
For dairy crossing we do not just use the Angus or Hereford but also Limousin, B.Blue, Simmental, Parthenaise, Shorthorn and we even have a Charolais bull for this in the form of Oldgrange Sindurain.
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