The 31 October deadline for farmers who are participating in SCEP is quickly approaching, whereby farmers must have a minimum of 65% of their reference number genotyped and ranking four or five stars on farm by this date.
Females must be four or five stars (on a within – or – across breed basis) on the maternal index at the time of purchase (for replacements brought into the herd) or at the time of genotyping (for those replacements bred within the herd). Females must be at least 16 months old by this date in order to be eligible to be included in this target. In our Beef Management notes in this week’s paper, this was listed as ‘six’ in error.
Over 16,000 herds remain in SCEP, with a number of farmers having removed themselves or were removed by the Department during its lifetime so far. Less than three weeks ago, an estimated 1,000 farmers of these 16,000 looked set to not reach the required 65% figure. The Department have notified these farmers via phone that they will not meet these requirements in the past few weeks.
SCEP sales
Many of these farmers will have purchased SCEP-eligible females in the convening weeks, with several special sales of heifers having taken place. The final special SCEP sale takes place in Skibereen mart, Co Cork tomorrow 24 October, while Tullamore Farm will have some SCEP eligible in-calf and maiden heifers on offer in Roscrea mart on 29 October (evening sale).
Farmers can check which heifers are eligible to qualify for SCEP through the mart tracker at these sales and other ordinary mart sales.
To do this, farmers should;
1. Visit the ICBF website: www.icbf.com.
2. On the homepage click on “Mart Tracker”.
3. Select your mart location to see what animals are entered for that day.
4. View detailed animal info, including:
Replacement Index.Genotype status.Breeding information.
The 31 October deadline for farmers who are participating in SCEP is quickly approaching, whereby farmers must have a minimum of 65% of their reference number genotyped and ranking four or five stars on farm by this date.
Females must be four or five stars (on a within – or – across breed basis) on the maternal index at the time of purchase (for replacements brought into the herd) or at the time of genotyping (for those replacements bred within the herd). Females must be at least 16 months old by this date in order to be eligible to be included in this target. In our Beef Management notes in this week’s paper, this was listed as ‘six’ in error.
Over 16,000 herds remain in SCEP, with a number of farmers having removed themselves or were removed by the Department during its lifetime so far. Less than three weeks ago, an estimated 1,000 farmers of these 16,000 looked set to not reach the required 65% figure. The Department have notified these farmers via phone that they will not meet these requirements in the past few weeks.
SCEP sales
Many of these farmers will have purchased SCEP-eligible females in the convening weeks, with several special sales of heifers having taken place. The final special SCEP sale takes place in Skibereen mart, Co Cork tomorrow 24 October, while Tullamore Farm will have some SCEP eligible in-calf and maiden heifers on offer in Roscrea mart on 29 October (evening sale).
Farmers can check which heifers are eligible to qualify for SCEP through the mart tracker at these sales and other ordinary mart sales.
To do this, farmers should;
1. Visit the ICBF website: www.icbf.com.
2. On the homepage click on “Mart Tracker”.
3. Select your mart location to see what animals are entered for that day.
4. View detailed animal info, including:
Replacement Index.Genotype status.Breeding information. 
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