Of these heifers, 50 were finished at the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) Tully Progeny Test Centre in Co. Kildare where data such as feed intake and methane emissions were measured from these animals.

The remaining 51 heifers were finished on the ABP Demo Farm.

The heifers on the Demo Farm had an average weight of 438kg at housing on Thursday, August 22.

This average housing weight was 12kg below the average weight for the heifers housed for finishing around the same time last year, which had an average weight of 450kg.

The demo farm heifers housed for finishing at the same time of 2022 had an average weight of 460kg, which was 22kg above the average housing weight of this year’s batch of heifers.

Despite this, ABP Food Group's Advantage Beef Programme farm liaison officer Sean Maher said: "The performance has been good in the finishing period considering heifers were back on housing weights."

The table below details the average carcass weights of the heifers grouped by sire breed and the number of heifers from each sire breed:

Maher described the grading and fat scores of the heifers slaughtered as good also.

He said: "80 of the heifers graded an O+ or better and of these, 36 graded an R. Kill outs have been steady at 51%."

Maher highlighted some of the top-performing heifers and noted one sired by a Limousin bull (LM7719) that graded an R+3= and had a carcass weight of 318kg.

Another heifer sired by a Shorthorn bull (SH4929) graded R-4= and had a carcass weight of 316kg.

At the lower-end of the scale, he said: "We have had a couple of O=3= heifers at the 230kg carcass weight mark."

Maher said: "These heifers had 60 days of a finishing period on average and last year, the average finishing period of the heifers was 70 days."

The ABP farm liaison officer expects the overall average number of finishing days to be slightly longer this year, but said: "If we can keep the weights up, it will even itself out".

The first of the 2023-born dairy-beef bullocks (steers) on the ABP Demo Farm will be drafted for slaughter in the next two weeks.

The bullocks have been on a finishing diet for six weeks as of Wednesday, October 23.

Maher added that while drafting cattle for slaughter is always tricky, "this year is harder than others due to the weather we had and its effect on cattle performance.

"Drafting cattle correctly based on their fat score ensures that farmers can maximise their cattles' potential while also saving money and feed on overfat animals.

He explained that the ABP Demo Farm "generally selects cattle on fat scores of three but this year, with the hope of maximising bonuses and carcass weight, we will see a lot more cattle reach fat scores of four".

"If farmers are unsure about selecting cattle for slaughter, make sure and contact your local ABP factory agent or farm liaison officer."