The Irish Charolais Cattle Society has confirmed that Barbara Jay-Downey has been appointed as its new secretary.
Barbara Jay-Downey, who hails from Co. Kildare, has been working for the society for 28 years.
Aiden MacHale, president of the Irish Charolais Cattle Society, told Agriland that the appointment was made following a meeting of the society’s council.
He said that Barbara is highly experienced and has an in-depth understanding of the running of the society.
MacHale added that Barbara already carries out many of the duties that the secretary’s position entails.
“Her vast knowledge of Charolais and her dedication is a great asset to the society. We wish her well in her new role,” he said.
Barbara Jay-Downey succeeds Shanon Kinahan from Co. Limerick who was appointed secretary of the society last May.
Meanwhile, the Irish Charolais Cattle Society last week became the latest breed society to decide not to print figures or star ratings on catalogues for its society cattle sales this year.
These figures and star ratings are generated by the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF).
The Charolais society is the third Irish cattle breed society to cease publishing ICBF evaluations in its sales catalogues.
“Due to the lack of confidence in the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) Euro-star indexes, council have decided to remove all Euro-star indexes from all our sales catalogues with immediate effect,” the society said in a statement.
It follows similar decisions by the Irish Salers Cattle Society and the Irish Simmental Cattle Society.
In December 2023, the ICBF confirmed it would convene a beef industry stakeholder forum on the changes to replacement and terminal breeding indices for beef animals.
These changes were approved in October 2023 and have faced significant backlash from a number of cattle breeders who were negatively impacted by the changes.