Suckler farmers participating in the Beef Environmental Efficiency Programme – Sucklers (BEEP-S) have until 1 November to weigh animals and submit weights to the ICBF which leaves only nine weeks to weigh. Calves can be weighed at any age up to weaning but the optimum time to weigh suckler cows and calves is when the calf is aged between 150 and 250 days (five and eight months). Table 1 outlines the optimum weighing period for calves born from 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020.
All calves born in autumn 2019 (July to December 2019) and their dams should be weighed by now. Early spring-calving herds should now be putting plans in place to weigh animals if they have not already done so. Farmers have a number of options to weigh animals in terms of scales:
Owned scales: farmer uses their own on-farm scales.BEEP rental scales: these are scales which have been made available for farmers to rent by the Department of Agriculture through official BEEP depots. For a list of these depots and to book scales, please go to www.mybeep.ie. Borrowed/third-party scales: these include scales borrowed from another farmer, hired from a non-BEEP source or technician scales.Scales rented through an official BEEP depot do not have to be registered. Owned and borrowed/third-party scales must be registered by the farmer before submitting weights. Scales can be registered online by logging into your ICBF account or by calling 023-8832883. Cow liveweight and milk (maternal weaning weight) are two traits that contribute significantly to the makeup of the €uro-Star replacement index. Weighing a suckler cow and its calf when the calf is between 150 and 250 days allows the ICBF to evaluate the genetic potential of a suckler cow for liveweight and milk production.
With the economic and environmental sustainability of the Irish suckler herd under increasing scrutiny, it is critical that farmers are able to identify the best possible genetics to breed efficient, moderate-sized suckler cows that produce heavy weanlings. Collecting on-farm weight data will be central to this.
What did the 2019 data tell us?
Approximately 18k suckler herds participated in the 2019 pilot BEEP scheme with weights submitted to the ICBF for over 470k cow/calf pairs.
Earlier this year, analysis of the weight data was carried out by Dr Alan Twomey, Teagasc, to see the effect of the replacement index on cow liveweight and calf weaning (200-day) weight.
As part of this analysis, all cows were adjusted to the same parity in order to remove the effect of age on cow performance which is non-genetic (eg a mature fifth-calver will have an advantage over a first-calver).
All calves were also adjusted to a common sire to remove the effect on calf performance (eg cows mated to a high carcase merit sire will have an advantage over cows mated to a low carcase merit sire). This allowed for the analysis to reflect performance differences which can be attributed solely to the genetic merit of the cows.
Table 2 outlines the results of this analysis.
Five-star cows had an average replacement index of €127, weighed 628kg and produced calves that weighed 300kg at 200 days old. One-star cows had an average replacement index of €28, were 28kg heavier at 652kg and produced calves that were 8kg lighter at 292kg. This resulted in a 3% difference in cow-calf weaning percentage, which is the calf’s 200-day weight as a percentage of the cow’s weight.
Cow-calf weaning percentage is an internationally used key efficiency metric for suckler beef production. This analysis was carried out using replacement index values for cows prior to the weight data being included in the evaluations. This demonstrates the ability of the replacement index to predict performance and should give farmers confidence in the usefulness of the index as a tool to select future breeding animals.
The replacement index is delivering on key profit traits on Irish suckler farms.
Continued farmer engagement in the form of comprehensive data recording and genotyping will continue to increase the reliability of €uro-Star indexes and accelerate the rate of genetic gain in our suckler herd, driving on-farm performance and the associated economic benefits.
Suckler farmers participating in BEEP-S have until 1 November 2020 to submit weights.To be eligible for the scheme, calves must be born between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2020.The optimum time to weigh calves is between 150 and 250 days old.Farmers can weigh animals using their own scales, rented scales, borrowed scales or through a weighing service provider.In 2019, there was a 3% difference in cow-calf weaning percentage between one-star and five-star cows in favour of five-star cows.
Suckler farmers participating in the Beef Environmental Efficiency Programme – Sucklers (BEEP-S) have until 1 November to weigh animals and submit weights to the ICBF which leaves only nine weeks to weigh. Calves can be weighed at any age up to weaning but the optimum time to weigh suckler cows and calves is when the calf is aged between 150 and 250 days (five and eight months). Table 1 outlines the optimum weighing period for calves born from 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020.
All calves born in autumn 2019 (July to December 2019) and their dams should be weighed by now. Early spring-calving herds should now be putting plans in place to weigh animals if they have not already done so. Farmers have a number of options to weigh animals in terms of scales:
Owned scales: farmer uses their own on-farm scales.BEEP rental scales: these are scales which have been made available for farmers to rent by the Department of Agriculture through official BEEP depots. For a list of these depots and to book scales, please go to www.mybeep.ie. Borrowed/third-party scales: these include scales borrowed from another farmer, hired from a non-BEEP source or technician scales.Scales rented through an official BEEP depot do not have to be registered. Owned and borrowed/third-party scales must be registered by the farmer before submitting weights. Scales can be registered online by logging into your ICBF account or by calling 023-8832883. Cow liveweight and milk (maternal weaning weight) are two traits that contribute significantly to the makeup of the €uro-Star replacement index. Weighing a suckler cow and its calf when the calf is between 150 and 250 days allows the ICBF to evaluate the genetic potential of a suckler cow for liveweight and milk production.
With the economic and environmental sustainability of the Irish suckler herd under increasing scrutiny, it is critical that farmers are able to identify the best possible genetics to breed efficient, moderate-sized suckler cows that produce heavy weanlings. Collecting on-farm weight data will be central to this.
What did the 2019 data tell us?
Approximately 18k suckler herds participated in the 2019 pilot BEEP scheme with weights submitted to the ICBF for over 470k cow/calf pairs.
Earlier this year, analysis of the weight data was carried out by Dr Alan Twomey, Teagasc, to see the effect of the replacement index on cow liveweight and calf weaning (200-day) weight.
As part of this analysis, all cows were adjusted to the same parity in order to remove the effect of age on cow performance which is non-genetic (eg a mature fifth-calver will have an advantage over a first-calver).
All calves were also adjusted to a common sire to remove the effect on calf performance (eg cows mated to a high carcase merit sire will have an advantage over cows mated to a low carcase merit sire). This allowed for the analysis to reflect performance differences which can be attributed solely to the genetic merit of the cows.
Table 2 outlines the results of this analysis.
Five-star cows had an average replacement index of €127, weighed 628kg and produced calves that weighed 300kg at 200 days old. One-star cows had an average replacement index of €28, were 28kg heavier at 652kg and produced calves that were 8kg lighter at 292kg. This resulted in a 3% difference in cow-calf weaning percentage, which is the calf’s 200-day weight as a percentage of the cow’s weight.
Cow-calf weaning percentage is an internationally used key efficiency metric for suckler beef production. This analysis was carried out using replacement index values for cows prior to the weight data being included in the evaluations. This demonstrates the ability of the replacement index to predict performance and should give farmers confidence in the usefulness of the index as a tool to select future breeding animals.
The replacement index is delivering on key profit traits on Irish suckler farms.
Continued farmer engagement in the form of comprehensive data recording and genotyping will continue to increase the reliability of €uro-Star indexes and accelerate the rate of genetic gain in our suckler herd, driving on-farm performance and the associated economic benefits.
Suckler farmers participating in BEEP-S have until 1 November 2020 to submit weights.To be eligible for the scheme, calves must be born between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2020.The optimum time to weigh calves is between 150 and 250 days old.Farmers can weigh animals using their own scales, rented scales, borrowed scales or through a weighing service provider.In 2019, there was a 3% difference in cow-calf weaning percentage between one-star and five-star cows in favour of five-star cows. 
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