New information is set to appear on mart boards across the country from this Wednesday, (March 1, 2023).

The Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) has confirmed that the Commercial Beef Value (CBV) of all genotyped beef cattle will be available for buyers to view on mart boards from later this week.

According to a statement from the ICBF, approximately 80% of Irish marts currently display Euro-Star data on their sale boards. The CBV will be a new addition to this information and is expected to be “an important tool for dry stock (non-breeding beef) herds purchasing animals in the future”.

Initially, a CBV will only appear on mart boards for beef cattle that have been genotyped, however, it is expected that a national genotyping programme for all cattle will be rolled out in the near future.

Farmers who are selling calves or store cattle privately can view the CBV of all genotyped and not genotyped cattle (with a sire recorded) on their HerdPlus accounts under the CBV profile. This CBV can then be supplied to the buyer.

A mart board with the CBV information displayed in the ICBF section at the bottom. Image source: ICBF

Only genotyped cattle will receive a CBV on mart boards. This is to eliminate the risk of an incorrect sire being recorded which would distort the CBV of the progeny being offered for sale.

What is the CBV?

The CBV is a euro value on an animal’s overall genetic merit for the traits of importance to a drystock enterprise.

The traits it takes into account are:

  • Carcass weight;
  • Conformation;
  • Fat;
  • Feed intake;
  • Docility.

In the ICBF’s January 2023 sire evaluations, a number of new traits have been added such as ‘age at slaughter’ and ‘percentage in spec’ for the three carcass traits – weight, conformation and fat.

A carbon sub-index has also been included to account for the carbon cost of producing these animals. The carbon sub-index makes up 10% of the average animal’s CBV.

Like the replacement and terminal indexes, the CBV is expressed as a euro value with a star rating. There are both ‘across breed’ and ‘within breed type’ star ratings.

The three ‘within breed type’ categories are as follows:

  • Suckler (beef sire and beef dam)
  • Dairy x Beef (one dairy parent and one beef parent)
  • Dairy x Dairy (dairy sire and dairy dam)

The ‘within breed type’ star rating aims to help farmers to identify the highest genetic merit animals within the breed type of interest to them as many farmers have a set enterprise in terms of the type of animal they buy.

Some beef farmers may only buy suckler-bred cattle while others buy dairy-bred cattle and the ‘within breed type’ factor will give farmers a better indication of each animals beef potential in the according category.

Star rating cut-offs

According to the ICBF, the star rating percentiles (cut-offs) will be very different across the three breed types.

The average value for suckler animals will be the highest, with dairy-beef cattle next and dairy-dairy bred cattle being the lowest.

The table below shows the the percentiles across breed, but also within the three breed types.

The star rating percentile (cut-off) values for the CBV (Jan 2023). Source: ICBF

Animals must also be in a herd subscribed to the ICBF HerdPlus service to be allocated a CBV. Pedigree beef animals, dairy females and calved females will not have a CBV.

The CBV will be displayed on mart boards for genotyped:

  • Commercial suckler males and uncalved females;
  • Dairy x beef males and uncalved females;
  • Dairy x dairy males.

The CBV will appear in the same format as the replacement index which is currently being displayed on mart boards.

Stay tuned to Agriland for further updates and information on the CBV.

COMMERCIAL BEEF VALUE MARTS