The Irish Beef and Lamb Association (IBLA) is set to proceed with seeking an injunction against the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) on the new terminal and replacement beef breeding indices.
The IBLA will look to raise funds via the online public funding platform GoFundMe, with the raised funds being used to engage in the legal process of obtaining an injunction.
The decision to proceed with injunction plans was one of the conclusions of an IBLA-organised meeting in Athlone last night (Wednesday, January 17) – which was livestreamed on social media – at which attendees discussed how to address their concerns with the new indices.
It is intended that the injunction, if one is obtained, would prevent the ICBF from “making public in any way the animal evaluation results based on the new beef indices”.
The IBLA’s Eoin Donnelly told Agriland: “We are game on to raise funds for initial legal opinion and based on that professional advice we will go a step further and raise funds for [an] injunction.”
The IBLA is aiming to raise €5,000 for the initial legal opinion, and €20,000 to pay the court costs of seeking an injunction. The IBLA is proposing that if either of these funding targets are not met than no injunction will be sought.
Last night’s meeting saw a presentation given, in which the IBLA claimed that the board of the ICBF is “considered dairy industry focused and does not appropriately consider beef farmer interests”.
The changes to the terminal and replacement beef indices that have been introduced by the ICBF and have proven to be controversial, with some breeders claiming their herds have been devalued due to changes in the star ratings of their animals.
The ICBF has also come under fire for a perceived lack of consultation with breeders and farmers.
The IBLA had previously said that it will consider seeking the injunction “prohibiting the ICBF from sharing publicly any evaluations of cattle using the revised beef [indices] until the issue is resolved”.
Suckler farmers, pedigree breeders and breed society representatives were invited to yesterday’s meeting to “discuss the impact that the revised beef indices would have on their business interests”.
The IBLA has claimed that pedigree breeders have seen “thousands of euro written off the value of all breeding stock”.
The group added that some suckler farmers will have to “reassess their own situation to comply with SCEP (Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme)”.
The IBLA has held a series of meeting with representatives from several breed societies, claiming that the consensus from those meetings is that “legal action should be taken against ICBF to stop the use of the new indices until such a time as a full consultation process has been exercised and a full review of the indices is carried out”.