Suckler farmers will have different parameters and key performance indicators (KPIs) to identify what they perceive to be the best "overall suckler herd performance".

Depending on the system, some suckler farmers will gauge number of assisted calvings as a KPI while others will look solely at weanling weight and weanling price as KPIs.

Regardless of the KPI, it is always useful to benchmark your herd performance against other farmers as a way of identifying what areas of the herd you are managing well and what areas you could look at improving.

The Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) has published the following list of 15 suckler herd performance KPIs and detailed the national averages for these over the past 10 years:

As well as the above table, the ICBF has also made available data on some of these KPIs but on a county-by-county comparison basis.

The gallery below details the average calving interval, percentage of heifers calved at 22 months-of-age and average age at first calving in months on a county-by-county basis:

On the above KPIs, the county with the highest performance in Co. Waterford.

Some of the average suckler herd statistics for Co. Waterford includes:

The lowest average calving interval at 390 days;
The joint highest calves/cow/year at 0.86;
The highest % of heifers calved 22-26 months at 39%;
The lowest age of first calving at 29.6 months;

According to the ICBF, at 38.9%, the proportion of heifers calving at 22–26 months-of-age in Co. Waterford is almost double the national average of 21.6%.

The average age at first calving in Waterford is 29.6 months, 2.6 months younger than the national average of 32.2 months.

The data also shows that the counties with the larger average suckler herd sizes tend to have better reproductive efficiency in the above KPIs.

Interestingly, these better-performing herds also tend to be in the south-east of Ireland.

According to the ICBF: "As you move diagonally across the country to the north-west, herd size generally gets smaller with a decline in efficiency."