The Limousin Cattle Society has pulled its commitment to the ICBF’s Whole Herd Performance Recording programme (WHPR). This comes as a massive blow to the ICBF given Limousin breeders make up the vast majority of participants.

The news comes just over 24 hours after the ICBF appeared before the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, where the Charolais society called for an overhaul of the €uro-star evaluation system.

Performance recording

The WHPR programme was initially launched by the ICBF to ensure accurate recording of data to include in genetic evaluations.

The majority of the participants are Limousin breeders, largely due to the Limousin cattle society making the programme compulsory for all breeders wishing to sell stock at premier sales.

The society confirmed its backing of the programme shortly after its introduction in late-2016. However, the majority of other breed societies refused to endorse the programme.

Earlier this month the Irish Farmers Journal revealed that two of the six regional Limousin clubs wanted the programme dropped as a compulsory requirement for sales.

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