Cork Marts has made the decision to include the details of the dam breed on mart boards from this weekend onwards.

More marts are likely to follow suit in the coming weeks.

Details of the dam breed will be displayed on the mart board along with other calf breed information.

There have been calls from farmers and cattle buyers in the last few weeks about increasing the amount of information that is displayed on mart boards.

At the moment, only the breed of the animal is displayed on the mart board, so if it’s an Aberdeen Angus or an Aberdeen Angus-cross, it comes up as AA.

Changes to legislation

Recent changes to legislation mean that the breed of dam must be printed on the blue identification card. However, this information didn’t carry through to mart boards.

The issue has arisen where calf agents are purchasing calves for farmers without having the details of the dam of that calf.

The agent then delivers the calf to the farm, the farmer looks at the card and they aren’t happy when they see a Jersey or Jersey-cross cow down as the dam of that calf.

A lot of them will look very similar to Friesian-cross calves at a few weeks old

It’s a particular problem with young calves, as a lot of them will look very similar to Friesian-cross calves at a few weeks old.

Calf buyers say that the current situation, where calves are bought without knowledge of the dam breed, is a nightmare.

These calves are purchased in good faith and then transported to the farmer. Once the farmer sees JEx as dam breed on the card, they then don’t want the calves.

The move will be welcomed by dairy beef farmers who are trying to avoid crossbred genetics in dairy beef animals.

It is expected that this move from Cork Marts will put pressure on more marts to follow suit in the coming weeks.