There has been numerous questions at the Department of Agriculture Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) meetings, at the joint Teagasc, Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) and Bord Bia on-farm events and through the Irish Farmers Journal Farm Tech Talks webinar regarding the recording of cow and calf weights.

The first year of the programme runs from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023, meaning there are significant numbers of cow-calf pairs that have now been weighed, but weight records have not been recorded with the ICBF.

The new ICBF SCEP recording screens have not yet been released, but animals can still be recorded even where herds have not joined SCEP yet through the normal weight recording screen.

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The weight recording portal can be accessed by scrolling over the ‘Record events’ tab at the top of the screen and selecting the ‘live weight’ option. This will bring up two tabs covering animals in your herd and animals which have departed your herd.

The date of weighing should be entered at the top of the screen before scrolling down to record the latest weight on the right hand side of the screen.

Date of weighing

The terms and conditions state that weights should be submitted within seven days, but this is not a definitive rule and there is no penalty currently listed in the terms and conditions for such an offense where weights are recorded annually before 1 November.

The ICBF advises farmers that they should never alter weights to try to meet the seven-day submission timeframe, with any deviation from the accurate weights collected having the potential to render this information worthless.

Instead, weights should be submitted in line with the date they were recorded.

For example, if a farmer collected weights two months ago, but held off from submitting - for example, due to SCEP screens not being available or because they forgot due to a high spring workload - they should enter the weights and the date on which they were recorded.

In some cases, farmers have sold weanlings or cows and, in these cases, weights can be recorded on the ‘Departed Herd’ tab.

Weighing rules

  • Each cow and calf pair must be weighed individually.
  • Each live calf must be unweaned and weighed with its dam on the applicant's holding on the same day. Where a calf or its dam dies before five months of age, this must be recorded on AIMS and the 80% does not include such pairs. Weights recorded after calves have been weaned are not eligible for inclusion.
  • Calves must be a minimum of 50 days of age at time of weighing.
  • All calves being submitted for weighing must have been born in the herd within each scheme year.

  • Participants must weigh at least 80% of eligible animals born on the holding of the yearly reference number in each scheme year and their dams and submit weights to the ICBF. Examples of this are detailed in Table 1 below. As can be seen, the 80% rule is based on the number of calves born and the upper limit is 80% of the reference number irrespective of whether there are more calves born on the holding.

    • The ICBF advises farmers to avail of electronic options for weight recording.

    Weight records submitted by paper are allowed, provided they are recorded on the sheet provided by the ICBF. The facility will be available in the future to print these hardcopy forms or order from the ICBF.

    For now, the overriding message is to get weights collected and recorded accurately, where appropriate, and these can then be submitted at a later date.

    Forgotten passwords

    Your username to login to the ICBF portal is usually your herd number or herd identifier. Passwords must be a minimum of six characters.

    If you cannot remember your password, there are three ways of redeeming it:

  • 1. Text the word PASS to 089-457 7663 to receive your password. NOTE: Your mobile number needs to be stored on the ICBF database for this system to work.
  • 2. Email the ICBF support team at query@icbf.com.
  • 3. Call the ICBF on 023-882 0452 during office hours (9am-5.30pm Monday to Friday).