Analysis from the Irish Cattle and Beef Federation (ICBF) shows the average Irish suckler cow will be produce a calf worth an extra €80 every year from 2030.

At the current rate of genetic gain, the average suckler herd will be worth €1,600 more in 11 years, beef farmers gathered at the Irish Farmers Journal Beef Summit heard from ICBF’s Andrew Cromie.

Across the entire suckler industry, this would be worth €74m in the year 2030.

To achieve these gains, there would be several key areas of improvement, namely weaning efficiency, calving interval and slaughter weight and age.

Criticisms

One area Cromie focused on was criticisms levelled at ICBF, the BDGP and €uro-Stars, which he said were presented as the principal reason for the decline in cattle quality in the national herd.

"The reality is that this decline is directly attributable to the increased size of our dairy herd,” Cromie stated.

The volume of beef sire x dairy cow male animals, excluding calves, trading through marts has increased by 31% since 2015, to over 170,000 animals in 2018. The equivalent figure for suckler bred males is down 7%.

The decline in carcase weights of steers slaughtered in 2018 was directly related to an increase in dairy-bred animals being slaughtered, Cromie said. There was no reduction in slaughter weights or grades for suckler-bred animals.

Gains

The average replacement index for first-calving females is increasing by €7/year. Cromie said the replacement index should rise to an average of €166 by 2030.

The 2030 cow would be the same average weight as it is now, 638kg, but it would produce a calf that is 10kg heavier at 200 days. This calf would be slaughtered 21 days earlier with a carcase that is 9kg heavier.

Cromie said this would result in not only more profitable cow but also a more carbon-efficient cow.

He acknowledged it was a challenge to transition from selecting replacements based on visual assessment to genomic and data-based methods. These methods could select for traits not seen by the eye.

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