DEAR SIR: On Monday 4 March, this society circulated its membership by text with the following carefully chosen wording: “Extreme caution should be exercised by Hereford breeders signing new ICBF contracts especially whole herd evaluation – legal advice advised”.

When publishing the text on 11 March, the Irish Farmers Journal, in commenting, stated that: “This new stance makes the Herefords the first to fully turn their back on the programme.”

No matter how one tries to analyse the text, The Dealer’s conclusion is incomprehensible. For an organisation which claims to be “fearlessly on the farmers’ side”, it is somewhat of a surprise or perhaps shock that the Irish Farmers Journal takes issue with this society’s word of caution to its members, who are presented by the ICBF with a 16-point contract, subdivided into a further 40 plus subsets for agreement and signature.

This simple contract is to enable the ICBF to record weaning weights, yearling weights, etc? Give me a break.

This society supports animal data recording and its members, many of whom have been performance-recording for over 40 years with this society through ICBF (a service provider).

I am not aware of any other beef breed society worldwide which DNA/genomically tests 100% of bull calves born annually and/or 100% of females joining the breeding herd. Some society members also choose to participate in Herd Plus and in the ICBF Gene Ireland programme.

In addition, society members use the ICBF facility to record ease of calving, birth size, calf vigour, calf quality, birth weight, docility, cow milk ability, cow docility, bull functionality and bull docility either via the ICBF online or paper system.