Top sire, Kealkil Prime Lad, with a 1.6kg carcase average, which is 6kg behind all breed averages – will he be used widespread to breed suckler replacements?

The breed composition of the suckler herd has changed very little over the past 15 years. For example, in 2008, cows with a main breed of Angus or Hereford made up 20% of the cows that calved that year. In 2022, that figure was 19%.

There has always been a significant number of Angus and Hereford bulls on the replacement bull list and it did not shift the breed profile.

If, and only if, a farmer is looking for an Angus bull, and the cow is strong on carcase weight, but perhaps very weak on fertility/milk, then Kealkil might have a role to play.

Kealkil Prime Lad is a six-year-old sire. He already has 1,085 calves to suckler dams, of which 731 are pedigree-registered animals. He has 66 calved suckler daughters. AA4743 is 1.6kg on carcase weight. The Angus breed average is 6.98kg. Yes, the bull is in the lower end of the breed for carcase weight.

However, carcase weight has an emphasis of 33% in the terminal index and 13% in the replacement index, resulting in 66% of the terminal and 87% of the replacement index composed of other traits driving profitability.

He is a trait improver with the Angus breed for seven out of the 10 traits in the terminal index and 13 out of 17 traits in the replacement index including being at the top of the breed for calving difficulty, gestation, age at slaughter, carcase conformation, daughter milk and daughter fertility. So, he will improve many traits in Angus cows.

He may best be suited to Angus cows above average on carcase weight but below average on carcase conformation.

SCEP eligible and two stars but breeding from these cows – that just doesn’t make sense? Surely, the right cow and right replacement is the best long-term strategy, not a scheme term and condition?

We are not suggesting that you should breed from that cow, even if she is SCEP eligible. However, if a farmer feels particularly strongly about breeding a replacement from that cow, even with an €80 replacement index (two stars), it could be mated to a five-star bull > €130 and could generate a four-star female replacement.

Eighty per cent of calves in suckler herd are sired by stock bulls – why weren’t ICBF coming and saying three years that this change was coming?

There is never any secret about changes to evaluations. The challenge is that as soon as we flag that changes are coming, people want to see what the impact is at the animal level, ie what bulls are going up, and what bulls are going down. This summer was a good example of that.

The economic value changes were presented to the breed societies back in July, but it wasn’t until the impact at a breed/animal level was seen, that the changes and their potential impact were registered.

Why was it left so long since the last economic re-evaluation?

The economic values were previously updated in 2015. According to CSO, in the period 2015 to 2020, input prices increased by only 2.2% as measured by the agricultural input price index and, therefore, the impact on economic values was unlikely to be significant. However, between 2020 and 2022, prices increased by 47% and therefore the need to update the economic values became much greater.

Fertiliser price declined 30% in 2023 and is predicted to decline another 35% in 2024, while fuel is predicted to fall 10% and electricity 10%. Have the 2023 input price declines been factored into the economic changes and when will the numbers change again, assuming the price predictions happen in 2024?

The prices included in the analysis for contractor silage harvesting (main measure of energy prices), feed and fertilisers were below 2023 prices to reflect that prices are continuing to fall from historic highs and are likely to fall further.

Relative to 2023 prices; contractor silage harvest prices were 15% lower, feed prices were 10% lower and N fertiliser prices were 20% lower.

There is some confusion around the different values given for weanlings in relation to different grades of quality. Could you outline the different values used and the scale used?

The weanling price used is €3.23/kg liveweight. The quality (muscularity/conformation) of a weanling is reflected in a conformation economic value in the indexes.

The ICBF bull search facility is one of the most transparent facilities globally in relation to animals and their genetic evaluations

This is valued at €17.59 per unit change in conformation (eg from an R= to an R+ grade).

Why has the ability to drill down into different values of bulls within indexes been taken down from the website?

It hasn’t.

The ‘Bull Search’ facility on the ICBF site is operational. There is one tab that is under reconstruction to take account of the changes.

The ICBF bull search facility is one of the most transparent facilities globally in relation to animals and their genetic evaluations.

Can you explain why the bull Powerful Proper has dropped from a five-star to a three-star in the latest evaluation run?

Powerful Proper (LM7416) went from four-star to two-star within the Limousin breed in replacement index.

He is not strong on the new trait, age at finish, being in the bottom 20% of the breed.

Also, he is in the bottom 4% of the breed for daughter fertility (measured through calving interval).

As he doesn’t have any daughters yet, his prediction is coming from his sire Kaprico Eravelle and maternal grandsire Ampertaine Abracedabra, which are both in the bottom 10% of the breed for daughter fertility .

The economic value of fertility has increased; hence, poorer fertility is being penalised more. Also the penalty for calf mortality has increased and he is in the bottom 10% of the breed for this trait.

Can you explain why the Dexter breed has a higher average replacement index than the Charolais breed?

The Dexter is a numerically small native breed of animal, and ultimately a niche breed, with a relatively small amount of data.

We were criticised for not having genetic evaluations for them during the BDGP, so we endeavoured to get genetic evaluations for them.

There is ongoing research to be done to put a non-linear impact on all traits, and this will help ensure these extreme examples are less frequent.

Comparing them to Charolais is really comparing apples and oranges, and not something suckler farmers are going to do.

The breed composition of the suckler herd has changed very little over the past 15 years.

The reality is that the majority of suckler farmers will choose breed first, and then work from there. And that is perfectly fine.

There is more than enough choice in each of the breeds for suckler farmers to continue to use their breed of choice.