The Irish Cattle Breeding Federaton’s (ICBF) performance was strongly defended by chief executive Seán Coughlan at an IFA meeting in Wexford on Monday.

In the face of repeated criticism from the farmers gathered, Coughlan presented a barrage of statistics showing that the suckler herd is trending in the right direction.

“In 2024 the average beef steer from the suckler cow was finished earlier, had a heavier carcase weight, and better conformation on average compared to 2010,” he said.

One farmer asked “what percentage of four- and five-star cows are suckler cows, pure sucklers?” Coughlan replied “85%”.

When challenged if this was an exact figure, he replied “it’s not, it’s 60% and it’s not 100%”. He said cows that were four- and five-star but were downgraded can use the previous higher rating for SCEP.

Farmers who finish cattle spoke of the drop in the number of quality beef animals in marts, blaming the star system in parts.

The main criticism was how confrmation and growth rate were being compromised by the emphasis on calving interval, fertility and milk.

Coughlan pointed to the reduction in suckler cow numbers as the main reason, with Wexford seeing a reduction from 32,000 suckler cows in 2015, to 20,000 now.

Coughlan predicted that the weighting for meat yield would go up when the next adjustments take place, due to the increase in beef price.

He highlighted how increased meal costs negatively affected the heavier cow. “An 800kg cow eats €75 more of feed than a 700kg cow, the calf wouldn’t generate that much more in value,” he said.

On susceptibility to TB, Coughlan said “some of the top EBI bulls are really poor for TB, they need to be eased out.

“[Some] 30-40% of the daughters of some bulls will go down if there’s an incidence of TB in the herd, others will be as low as 6%”.