All farmers will see the genetic merit score of cows, replacements and bulls drop this week, as ICBF brings in a raft of changes to the Economic Breeding Index (EBI).

The first change is to the base cow. Up to now, the base cow was made up of animals born in 2005 that were milk-recorded in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

For the September 2025 evaluation, the base cow has changed to cows born in 2015 which were milk-recorded in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

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As today’s animals are now being compared to cows born 10 years after the old base, the difference in genetic merit is less, so the EBI of all animals is set to drop by €97 across the board.

At the same time, as ICBF is adjusting the base cow, Teagasc has updated the economic values within the EBI.

The main changes are to the value of milk, with the milk price used in the calculations increasing from 31c/l to 38c/l. The ratio of fat to protein has also been adjusted.

Assumptions around the costs of inputs has also changed, with increases in the cost of feed, fertiliser, labour and energy incorporated into the new values.

Another key change is to the beef and maintenance sub-index, with heifer-rearing costs being moved out of the beef sub-index and moved into the maintenance sub-index.

The ICBF has released a new ready-reckoner for farmers to use when estimating cow size from the maintenance sub-index.

As a result of changes to the economic values for 2025, the exact drop in EBI for all animals is not the same. On average, the EBI of cows will drop by €83/head, but there will be variation between animals.