Can a breed society 'remove' a bull's genetic evaluations?

Many pedigree bull breeders and commercial suckler farmers who buy pedigree bulls have voiced concerns regarding the potential loss of the genetic evaluations of their breeding cattle.

Some of these pedigree and commercial suckler farmers use these evaluations to assess traits like calving difficulty and carcass weight, while others were concerned whether or not their bull would remain eligible for the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP).

In light of these concerns, Agriland asked the CEO of the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF), Sean Coughlan, if it is the breed society or the farmer who owns the set of evaluations for an individual animal.

Responding to this, Coughlan said: "Our view has always been that all of the data in the ICBF database, the control of that data rests with the individual farmer."

"So that farmer [the owner of the animal] decides at an individual level who does or does not have access to their data. We have been consistent on that for 25 years and that hasn't changed."

The ICBF CEO affirmed that if a farmer purchased a bull and a breed society tried to remove the evaluations completely, the farmer would still have the evaluations for their bull.

He said: "That's available in two places. It's either available on the bull search on the ICBF animal search or also available on their HerdPlus account."

He added: "It is up to the breeder themselves to decide what they want to do".

Coughlan acknowledged that there is a preference from many commercial suckler farmers for higher star-rated bulls and said: "That's partly driven by the [SCEP] scheme but also driven by the fact that when we look at the performance of five-star versus one-star.

"If you look at the carcass traits for example, the five-star carcass terminal animals last year, the offspring from those animals were 50kg of carcass heavier than the one-star animals."

"That's a huge amount of money, when you bring in better quality and better finishing age, you're up at maybe €400/animal."

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The ICBF CEO believes that more can be done to increase the level of understanding of the Euro-Star indices amongst farmers.

He said: "The star ratings can be complex enough and there's a huge range of understanding out there, from farmers that have a really detailed understanding to farmers who don't really have an understanding and that's a continued focus for us."

Farmers can click here to listen to the full Agriland interview with ICBF CEO Sean Coughlan.

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