After careful consideration, the Irish Salers Cattle Society has decided to withdraw ICBF Eurostar indexes from its sales catalogues.

In a statement to the Irish Farmers Journal, the society explained: “It has become increasingly difficult to breed top-end cattle and still maintain figures within the top 20-40% of the herdbook.

“To put things in perspective, most pedigree or commercial farmers with Salers cows would classify their best cows weighing between 700-800kg.

“This cow has a huge capacity to calve and enough carcase weight to drive progeny into heavy weights in the meat factory.

“The Teagasc/ICBF evaluation model is built around a cow that weighs between 500-600kg.

“This is shown clearly on the ICBF active bull list where the average daughter liveweight of the top 10 bulls across breeds weighs just over 550kg.”

The society also expressed concern regarding inbreeding and a narrowing gene pool within the breed.

“There are 23 Salers bulls currently available in AI. It’s concerning that only two of those bulls (9%) are four or five stars within our breed.

“A shocking 48% of these bulls are considered one star within the breed, bearing in mind that Salers have been bred as a maternal breed for centuries.”

It concluded: “It’s regrettable that the new figures are no longer a true reflection of an animal’s value.”

This comes just a few months after the Irish Simmental Cattle Society decided to withdraw ICBF figures from its sale catalogues.