FBD Trust €uro-Star €200 competition

FBD Trust, ICBF, Teagasc and the Irish Farmers Journal have come together to promote a new beef breeding competition, aimed at rewarding those pedigree bull breeding and commercial suckler herds that are achieving excellence in the beef breeding performance of their suckler herds. The new competition is being promoted as the “FBD Trust €uro-Star €200 competition”, with a total prize fund of €40,000 being offered by FBD Trust to promote the objectives of the competition.

Commenting on these objectives, chair of FBD Trust Michael Berkery noted that moving the national suckler herd from it’s current herd average merit of €90 to a figure of €200 has the potential to add an additional €300m to the profitability of the suckler beef industry, with a consequential 14% reduction in GHG output.

He acknowledged that this would take some 15 years to achieve (based on current rates of genetic gain from ICBF), but that this was the core objective of the competition; to accelerate genetic gain in the key traits that drive profitability on commercial suckler beef farms, most notably milk, fertility and quality carcase attributes.

Chair of ICBF Michael Doran noted that the competition sponsors would be visiting shortlisted herds entered in the coming weeks. This would then culminate in the announcement of regional and overall winners at the ICBF Genetics Conference, which is due to take place on the 5 and 6 December, in the Hodson Bay Hotel, Athlone.

Editor and CEO of the Irish Farmers Journal Justin McCarthy said: “We are delighted to partner with FBD, Teagasc and ICBF for this new competition. There are some excellent suckler farmers across the country who are using genetics to its best advantage and in turn reaping the rewards. This competition will showcase these producers and demonstrate to the wider farming public the role that genetics can play in profitable businesses.”

What are the criteria to get shortlisted for the competition?

All Herdplus herds participating in BDGP, with 20 or more cows and using AI (three or more bulls, measured by the number of AI sired calves born in the last year) are eligible for consideration for the €uro-Star €200 competition. A number of key performance indicators have been used in the adjudication process, including a number of fertility traits, genetic indices and data recording completeness. Herds have been scored based on the following traits:

Points have been allocated on a basis of percentile rank, with percentiles calculated from all eligible herds. Herds within the top 5% receive 10 points for that trait, nine points for the top 10%, eight points for top 20% and so on. Herds that are not recording information, ie weights, receive zero points for that trait. An example of how the percentiles and points awarded for each trait work are listed below. Double points are awarded for calves/cow/year. An additional 10 points are awarded to Knowledge Transfer participating herds.

What happens next?

Letters have been posted out to the owners of the 100 top commercial herds and 100 pedigree herds (200 herds in total) based on the ranking system and competition criteria. Competition judges from ICBF, Teagasc and the Irish Farmers Journal will begin visiting shortlisted farms on 19 November to choose the winners. The top three entrants in each region will be visited and four regional winners and one overall winner will then be selected based on these farm visits. Breeding objectives, breeding plan, herd performance, carbon footprint, beef profit monitor and animal handling facilities (health and safety) will all be assessed as part of the commercial farm visit. On the pedigree side, the key performance indicators include information on a number of fertility traits, genetic indices, data recording completeness and meeting market demands by producing BDGP eligible bulls (genotyped, four or five-star bulls).

Awards night

Winning farmers will be announced at the inaugural ICBF genetics conference being held in the Hodson Bay Hotel on Wednesday and Thursday, 5 and 6 December and presented with prizes outlined below. The Irish Farmers Journal will be profiling these farms in a special breeding supplement in the coming weeks.

Prize details

Pedigree

Commercial