Angus overtakes Charolais

The number of Aberdeen Angus calf registrations overtook Charolais in the first four months of 2017, meaning the Angus breed is now the second most popular beef sire used in NI.

Figures from the Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC) show that there were 29,794 Angus and 29,265 Charolais calves registered on NI farms up to the end of April.

The Angus and Charolais breeds accounted for 21.8% and 21.5% of beef-sired calf registrations in NI over the period, respectively. In the first four months of last year, 19.9% of beef calves were registered as Angus and 22.9% were Charolais.

Limousin remains the most popular beef sire with 35,919 registrations up to April, equating to 26.3% of beef-sired calves. This is a slight reduction from the breed’s 27.8% share of calf registrations in the same period last year.

Hereford, Simmental and Belgian Blue are the other most popular beef breeds with 8.8%, 7.3% and 6.3% of beef-sired calf registrations, respectively.

Book now for meat plant visits

Bookings can now be made for visits to local meat plants.

The abattoir visits will allow farmers to view facilities from the lairage to retail packing, and will highlight issues such as presenting animals for slaughter and market requirements.

The initiative named “Walk the Line” is being run by the Northern Ireland Meat Exporters Association (NIMEA), the Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC) and the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU).

Contact the LMC on 02892633000 for event dates and bookings.

DAERA quotation – correction

A quote from DAERA permanent secretary Noel Lavery in an article on page seven of last week’s Irish Farmers Journal contained a misprint.

It related to a TB test on a pedigree herd in Co Down conducted 47 days after a previous test, and not the normal 60 days.

The quote should have read: “I understand that an early date of testing may result in more false negative reactions in affected cattle, therefore the early date of testing was not detrimental for your herd.”

NI farmers submit SAF online

Almost 100% of the 24,901 Single Application Forms (SAF) submitted before the application deadline on Monday were completed using DAERA’s online service.

Only 118 farmers submitted a paper form, meaning 99.53% were completed online.

Amendments can be made up to 31 May on applications that were submitted before midnight on Monday without financial penalties applying. Late applications can also be submitted up to 9 June but payments across all schemes will reduce by 1% per working day.

Meanwhile, DUP MEP Diane Dodds has said that the further rise in online applications means the onus is now on DAERA to issue advanced payments to farmers again this year.

“DAERA must continue to make this a priority and deliver for farmers,” she said.

UFU seeks agricultural policy feedback

An online feedback form has been set up by the UFU to get farmers’ views on its discussion paper on future domestic agriculture policy in the UK after Brexit.

Meetings will also be held with members over the summer to discuss the paper further.

The online form is open to submissions from individuals only and is available at www.ufuni.org

See more on page 6

Herd of origin on BovIS

Users of the bovine information system (BovIS) which is part of DAERA online services, will notice that there is now a new feature, which allows store and weanling cattle producers to see how their animals performed at slaughter.

The herd-of-origin report allows farmers to search on the basis of ear tag number, or enter a range in kill dates, birth dates, breed or animal type. This should then reveal weights and grades of their animals within the category searched.

Given that a farmer might have had no control over feeding and management of the animal up to slaughter, the data should be treated with some caution.

But it should still give a good indication of the quality of the animal being produced on farm and help with breeding decisions.