A number of marts will hold sales for Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) eligible heifers throughout October, the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) has confirmed.

ICBF, in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) is co-ordinating the sales.

These heifers will be sold in a special section within regular mart sales. Some marts will hold two of these sales in the month.

The dates and locations of the sales are as follows:

Farmers with surplus 4 or 5-star genotyped Replacement Index heifers, or farmers looking to purchase eligible heifers, can be involved in the sales.

Farmers wishing to sell heifers can enter them for sale through the ICBF app.

Farmers looking to buy SCEP eligible heifers can use the Mart Tracker function on the ICBF website to view the Replacement Index, genotype status and breeding information of animals for sale.

In other news from the ICBF this week, changes in the Economic Breeding Index (EBI) have come into effect which will result in a major change in a herd's EBI figure.

The ICBF, in partnership with Teagasc, have updated the dairy and beef evaluations.

The ICBF said the changes "are designed to make the indexes (EBI, Replacement, Terminal and Dairy Beef Index), more accurate and relevant to today’s farming conditions".

It also outlined that "continuous improvement in the EBI is essential for Irish dairy farmers to breed the most profitable and resilient cows for the future".  

The three key changes to the EBI will include a base population change on milk and fertility sub-index, updates to economic values on all traits, and new models applied to the health and management sub-index.