Farmers will begin to notice changes to their herds Economic Breeding Index (EBI) in the coming days and weeks as it has seen a major update this week.

The major changes to the EBI can be largely attributed to the updating of the base cow population and the revision of the economic values to best reflect recent and future projections of market prices.

The Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) in partnership with Teagasc have updated the dairy and beef evaluations.

The aim of these changes is to accelerate genetic gain, support better health and management decisions, and enhance the profitability and sustainability of the national dairy herd, according to the ICBF.

Even though a farmer's EBI figure will look depleted, the overall ranking of animals within their herds will be almost unchanged.

Overall, farmers will see a reduction of approximately €83 per animal due to the combined impact of these changes.

The EBI is calculated by assessing key traits that impact the profitability of dairy cows and these traits are grouped into categories such as milk production, fertility, calving performance, beef production, maintenance, and health.

If you were to solely change the base cow population, it would result in no change at all to every animal’s position in the EBI ranking.

Every animal would simply be reduced by the exact same amount.

This is because dairy evaluations require a reference point, or a base cow population, to compare genetic progress against.

The previous base cow related to cows born in 2005, first calved and milk recorded in the 2007-2009 period.

The new base will use cows born in 2015, first calved and milk recorded in the 2017-2019 period, which is more reflective of the actual genetics in the national herd.

Changing the base cow population will result in each animal’s EBI reducing by €97 and is actually a reflection of the amount of genetic progress achieved over the past 10 years, now that the base has been updated to a more recent cow cohort.

Within this €97 decrease, a €45 decrease in the milk sub-index will occur, as the change in milk yield PTA is -74kg, -7kg fat, -5.6kg protein, -0.07% fat and -0.05% protein.

The fertility sub-index will also drop by €52, as the the calving interval PTA has increased by 2.66 days and the survival has decreased by 1.33%.

These updates account for rising input costs, such as increased feed and fertilizer prices, higher output prices, and future market projections.

Costs have risen as feed has gone from €250/t to €370/t, fertiliser from €420/t to €550/t, and energy went from €0.15 to €0.25/kwh.

The updated economic values also account for labour costs, along with higher output prices and future market projections and are as folllows:

In the update, milk price is forecast at 40c/L (incl. VAT) with a protein-to-fat ratio of 1.7:1 and the heifer growth cost has been moved to the Maintenance Sub-Index, which was previously accounted for in the Beef Sub-Index.

These updates mean some sub-indexes (especially Beef and Maintenance) will change to reflect higher beef value and feed costs.

To align the beef-sub index within the EBI with the Dairy Beef Index (DBI), carcass weight and cull cow valves have also been updated.

Farmers who are examining their EBI report will also notice a drastic change to their maintenance sub-index figure.

The heifer rearing cost has been moved to the Maintenance Sub-Index. It was previously accounted for in the Beef Sub-Index and has increased the maintenance sub-index from 4% to 8%.

The original maintenance sub-index would include 100% of the cost to maintain a cow, whereas the new sub-index will be 63% cost to maintain cow and 37% cost to grow heifer, which would have previously been included in the cull cow.

The economic value applied to the cost of maintaining each additional kilogram of cow live-weight has increased by 43%.

The inclusion of heifer rearing costs in the maintenance sub-index amalgmated with the inflation of costs from feed (up 40%) has increased the weighting of maintenance in the EBI, rewarding the lighter cows.

However, with the increase in cull cow prices and carcass weight, the beef sub-index for cows will see an average increase of €5, with the bigger cows being rewarded more and the smaller cows being penalised more in this case.

The formula for new predicted liveweight is 601.67 + (New_maint_SI x -1.7349). For instance, a herd with €15 maintenance, 601.67 + (€15 x -1.7349) = 575.6.

Farmers need to remember that even though it looks like your EBI has taken a hit, in most cases, it has not at all, as all cows in the country have decreased in line with your herd.