Young bulls excluded from grass-fed beef standard

Bord Bia’s grass-fed beef standard has been sent to the European Commission for approval and young bulls are not included in it.

Documents seen by the Irish Farmers Journal show that a number of conditions will apply in order for cattle to be eligible for the scheme.

The first nine months of the animal’s life is excluded and “only heifers, steers and cows will be assessed” for the standard.

“The animal’s entire life must have been spent on farms where data is available in relation to feed consumption and grazing season in the Sustainable Beef and Lamb Assurance Scheme (SBLAS) database.

“If an animal, or animals, reside on a farm for less than 30 days, and where that farm does not meet the required grass fed threshold, this farm will be excluded from the calculation for that animal,” according to Bord Bia.

Eligibility

In order to be eligible, farmers must be in the SBLAS. Bord Bia also says that the scheme is open to all dairy producers. Cattle from feedlots are excluded from the scheme. Bord Bia defines a feedlot where “animals are farmed in confined systems and whose diet consists of high levels of concentrate feeding”.

Animals must have been at grass for a minimum of the national average of 220 days per year during their lifetime.

“A tolerance of up to 40 days less is acceptable where weather conditions, soil type and other environmental conditions are determined as an impeding factor to grazing outdoors,” Bord Bia said.

On the factory side, grass-fed beef product to be labelled under the standard must be clearly identifiable throughout the process and must not be mixed with non-grass-fed product at any stage.

Teagasc involvement

In response to last week’s article, a Teagasc spokesperson told the Irish Farmers Journal: “Teagasc was centrally involved in the development of the grass-fed methodology for dairy and we understand that the same methodology was applied to the grass-fed beef standard.”

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