Date announced for first ICBF beef stakeholder forum

The first Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) beef stakeholder forum will take place on Thursday 1 February from 10am to 1pm.

Invitations have been sent to all interested parties this week for the three-hour meeting.

The Irish Farmers Journal understands that former Department of Agriculture official Paul Dillon will chair the meeting.

The three-hour meeting will include presentations from Ross Evans from the ICBF and Paul Crossan from Teagasc on the changes to the indices and why they came about.

Pedigree breed societies, farm organisations, AI companies and other stakeholders will attend. This will be the first of a number of meetings in the coming months.

Tensions

Tensions remain high in suckler circles around the most recent changes made to the ICBF suckler indices in November 2023.

Many suckler farmers feel the changes were communicated poorly and the ICBF will address a lot of these issues at the stakeholder forum.

Meanwhile, the Irish Beef and Lamb Association (IBLA) has reached its target of raising €5,000 to seek legal advice on its options to take out an injunction against the ICBF against publishing any more updates to the indices.

A GoFundMe page, which was set up last week after a meeting was held in Athlone, raised the cash in a few days, giving the organisation the remit to get the legal advice before any more action is taken.