The Department of Agriculture has moved to allow more cows and calves to meet the terms of the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) following farmer outrage over changes to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) indexes.

Heifers out of genotyped cows in SCEP herds that are not eligible for SCEP on their own genomic evaluation may now become eligible if their sire and dam meet a minimum requirement on the September 2023 ICBF evaluation.

Female offspring will be considered eligible for SCEP if their dam was a three-, four- or five-star and the sire was four- or five-star on the replacement index. This will be the case even if, when genotyped, they are not evaluated as four- or five-star in their own right.

Such females remain “SCEP eligible” where they are traded to another SCEP herd, but not if they are traded to a non-SCEP herd.

The window to amend 2024 yearly reference numbers is open until midnight on 19 February 2024.

The change comes ahead of a crunch ICBF stakeholder meeting on the indices this Thursday.