Benefits of using high fertility EBI sires During the Breeding Plan Webinar, as part of Breeding Week, hosted by Teagasc and Irish Cattle Breeding federation (ICBF), Stephen Moore a researcher with Teagasc spoke about the benefits of using high economic breeding index (EBI) sires and improving overall herd EBI. The EBI is a tool to help identify profitable animals. It has been in existence for almost 20 years, and has been widely adopted by Irish dairy farmers. The current makeup of the EBI is broken down into seven sub indexes. These include milk production; fertility; calving performance; beef; cow maintenance; cow management; health.