The Irish Beef and Lamb Association (IBLA) has said that an "alternative" organisation to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) is needed, as the long running controversy over revised Euro-Star ratings continues.

Over the past two months, several Irish cattle breed societies have issued statements outlining that they are to cease publishing ICBF evaluations in their society sales catalogues.

The matter dates back to November 2023, when the ICBF announced revisions to how animals were evaluated under the Euro-Star system.

The changes have resulted in concerns from breeders and breed societies over how the evaluation of animals under the new beef indices will impact on their profitability.

In a statement this week, the IBLA said: "The vast majority of pedigree cattle breed societies from the beef breeds that make up the Suckler herd in the Republic of Ireland have decided to remove the ICBF indices from sale catalogues.

However, despite that, the IBLA said it will continue to participate in the ICBF stakeholder forum, the next meeting of which is scheduled for Friday (February 14).

The group said: "The primary reason for this decision is that nothing will be achieved by not participating in the meetings, even if, at the moment, the stakeholder meetings have little value.

"To date, the ICBF and Teagasc...have used the stakeholder meetings to share very detailed analysis taken from all the information made available...from many sources within the beef industry," the group added.

The IBLA claimed that the ICBF has "not been able to convince those in the stakeholder meetings that their evaluation model makes sense".

One of the issues with the new ratings is that, according to the IBLA, it is not clear how different weanlings are valued in the ICBF model that is used to determine the star rating of the cow.

"With the exception of a change to the ‘ideal’ cow weight in the ICBF evaluation model,nothing more of significance has been achieved at the stakeholder meetings so far thatwould address the many concerns raised by farmers," the IBLA said.

The group said it was awaiting the information prepared by the ICBF Technical Advisory Group (TAG) that was presented to the board that voted to approve the changes in November 2023 - information it says it has requested.

The IBLA went so far as to call for an alternative body to the ICBF.

It said: "Based on the next stakeholder meeting, IBLA will consider asking the Minister for Agriculture [Martin Heydon] to make available an alternative body to ICBF for cattle breeders in Ireland.

"The IBLA contests that there is a burden of responsibility on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to provide a viable alternative for the pedigree and suckler breeders of Ireland," the group added.