The Irish Beef and Lamb Association (IBLA) has said that it “fully backs” decisions made at the recent annual general meeting (AGM) of the Irish Simmental Cattle Society on breed evaluations.
At the cattle breed society meeting, two motions forwarded by the Western Simmental Club were up for discussion and decision.
According to the society, the first motion was ‘No Confidence in the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF)’ and the second motion was ‘to cease publishing ICBF evaluations in sales catalogues’.
In a statement issued to Agriland, the society said: “Both motions were carried unanimously and are a clear indication of breeder frustration with the current evaluations.”
Responding to the outcome of the Simmental society’s AGM , the IBLA said it “acknowledges the large level of frustration among pedigree cattle breeders and suckler farmers over the failure by ICBF to generate accurate beef indices for Irish herds”.
The IBLA confirmed that it is still working with a legal team to challenge the revised ICBF indexes, with a view to “having pedigree breeders compensated for their financial loss”.
“The publication of the new beef indices in November 2023 has come at a cost to farmers,” the farmer group said.
In a statement, the IBLA said it supported the Simmental society’s decision to cease publishing the ICBF data.
“We as farmers have seen that government policy and approach has placed our beef and suckler industries in jeopardy through publication of recent data and information,” the group claimed.
“This has placed our suckler industry on the wrong road and has opened up opportunities for pedigree breeders outside of Ireland to enter the market here in order to secure quality stock at artificially deflated prices,” the IBLA statement added.
According to the group, carcass quality is being “constantly reported as decreasing in quality and composition as a result of changes in ICBF data and reporting”.
The IBLA claimed that this, in turn, is directly interfering with producers’ income “and not in a positive way”.