It was a coincidence that just last week as the furore erupted over the ICBF indices with the Continental beef breeds that I had a long-standing arrangement for a discussion on the use of genotyping and the commercial beef value concept in my dairy beef system.

I had paid my HerdPlus subscription for the last few years but had been conscious that I had used it very little and gained even less.

I was acutely aware there were huge gaps in performance and profitability between the best performing, average and the worst animals as they left after roughly a year on the place.

There is no doubt that the whole development of the commercial beef value concept, based on the ability to genotype animals accurately, has the potential to fundamentally transform the efficiency of Irish beef farming.

I must admit, I find it odd that dairy farmers can genotype their animals for €6 while beef farmers who need the information more than those in dairying, at least in my view, have to pay an unsubsidised price of €16/head.

However, that is a side issue in coming to grips with the potential of the technology and the professionalism ICBF has shown in developing the metrics around the use of what is still farmers’ data and the way it has developed its extremely useful websites.

Hopefully the disquiet among some of the breed societies will not undermine confidence in the huge value of the organisation.

Post-storm trauma

Meanwhile, the drawn, post-storm cleanup continues both physically in sawing fallen trees. We have first to get them cleared from land either in winter crops or being aimed for spring beans.

On the damaged buildings side, after informing our insurance company of the damage, we were given a claim number etc and were contacted by a designated loss adjuster.

We had an initial conversation, sent the required photos of the damage which were acknowledged and then got a reputable builder who brought a quantity surveyor with him to assess the cost of making good the damage.

We got the detailed estimate and emailed it off within the prescribed period. There is clearly a lot of pressure in the system. Going to a local IFA meeting the other night, the FBD representative said they had 6,000 individual claims from storm damage so I was not surprised there was a delay in responding fully.

However, I have now been informed that all my details have been supplied and there doesn’t seem to be any reason why there should be a delay in final settlement. A timescale of two to three weeks was given, so we will see how it goes.

On the land, we have tentatively started spring grazing by day with light stores and we have bought enough nitrogen fertiliser for the first split on all the crops.