Beef
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, is being urged to intervene in the controversy surrounding changes to beef breeding indexes
Beef Technical
The Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) has released data which outlines the top ten AI beef sire for the second half of 2023.
The IBLA has said there "now appears to be more questions than answers" on the revised beef breeding indices.
Beef News
The ICBF said the beef stakeholder forum will meet again later this month to discuss concerns over changes to the beef breeding indices.
The ICBF is to host a meeting of the beef industry stakeholder forum next week to discuss changes to the breeding indices for beef animals.
A member of the Joint Committee on Agriculture is calling on the ICBF to suspend its recent re-classification of beef breeding indices.
The chief executive of the ICBF has admitted that communication with farmers around beef breeding index changes has been "sub-optimal".
Breed societies have voiced their anger about a lack of consultation in advance of beef breeding index changes.
The five IFA Connacht county chairs have released a joint statement saying that suckler farmers "have lost faith" in ICBF, Teagasc, and DAFM.
The Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue believes changes to the beef breeding index will enhance profitability for farmers.
The ICSA has said that impending changes to the beef breeding indices were decided "without adequate consultation".
The Irish cattle breeding federation (ICBF) has revealed the most popular AI beef sires used on the suckler herd this year.
Rural Life
Minister Charlie McConalogue has announced the return of the breeder’s choice class for beef heifers at agricultural shows this year.
Funding of €250,000 will be put towards the creation of a new competition class at Irish agricultural shows for beef breeding heifers.
The Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) is an organisation that provides breeding information to the Irish dairy and beef industries.
The replacement index, and particularly the benefits of five-star cows, has been a topic of debate in recent weeks with the reopening of the Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP).
Calving heifers down at 24 months makes commercial sense and is critical to suckler farming success.
Herd reports for the Beef Data and Genomics Programme are expected to arrive shortly, but what impact does the ICBF Euro Star rating have on profitability?
The revised maternal index will place more of an emphasis on milk and fertility. The old index was too beef orientated said the ICBF’s Chris Daly.
A number of significant changes will be made to the Euro-Star rating system for all beef animals, says the ICBF. The majority of these changes have occurred within the Replacement index.
Over 27,000 farmers have applied to the Beef Data and Genomics Scheme, according to the Department of Agriculture, so what happens next?
Agri-Business
The National Cattle Breeding Centre (NCBC) new state of the art laboratory facility was recently opened by Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney.
The Beef Data and Genomics Programme is a six year long programme for suckler farmers. Some 15 questions about the scheme have been answered by the Department.
