The ICBF released its 2018 beef calving report recently. The report, which is generated for each suckler herd, is designed to give farmers an insight into the reproductive performance of their herd.

In all cases, the calving reports run from mid-year, meaning the 2018 report covers the period from 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018.

It is also worth noting that the ICBF website also provides a tool which can generate a beef calving report for any period at any time.

National performance

Upon the release of the individual farm reports, the ICBF also launches the results of key performance indicators (KPIs) from the national herd.

These national statistics, which are based on herds with 10 calvings or more, are outlined in Table 1.

One such benefit of the report is the ability it gives farmers to look at KPIs of their own herds, which can then be benchmarked against the overall performance of the national herd.

Analysis

The average calving interval of the national herd has increased by two days from 394 days in 2017 to 396 days in 2018.

However, looking at this statistic over a longer period of time, the average of the last three years (394 day average for 2016 to 2018) is four days better than the three years prior (398 day average for 2013 to 2015).

As a result, while year-on-year data shows a negative trend, the trend over the past half-decade for calving interval has been positive.

Similarly, the percentage of heifers calved at 22 to 26 months of age has slipped by 2% year on year, but this trait is showing steady 5% improvement over time (23% in 2018 versus 17% in 2014).

In 2014, AI calves made up almost one quarter (24%) of suckler calves in the country.

Disappointingly, one trait showing a significant downward trend for the last five years is the percentage of calves born from AI sires.

In 2014, AI calves made up almost one quarter (24%) of suckler calves in the country.

Now, five years later, this figure has dropped to just above 15%.

On a positive note, the number of calves per cow per year and the number of calves born with calving survey data has climbed, while the number of difficult calvings on farm and the number of cows recycled (let slip) has dropped.

To access your herd's beef calving report, log into you ICBF account on the https://www.icbf.com/wp/, and follow the ‘reports’ tab.