The Irish Salers Cattle Society has decided 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) and the Salers society is the second Irish cattle breed society to cease publishing ICBF evaluations in its sales catalogues.

In December last year, the Irish Simmental Cattle Society passed a motion of ‘no confidence in the ICBF’ and a second motion ‘to cease publishing ICBF evaluations in sales catalogues’ at its annual general meeting (AGM).

The decision from the Salers society was reached at its council meeting which took place in Athlone, Co. Roscommon, on Sunday, January 26.

In a statement issued to Agriland, the Irish Salers Cattle Society said: "It has become increasingly difficult to breed top-end animals in the flesh and still maintain figures within the top 20-40% of the herd book.

"The Teagasc/ICBF evaluation model is built around a cow that weighs between 500-600Kg. This is shown clearly on the ICBF active bull list where the average daughter live weight of the top 10 bulls interbreed weigh just over 550Kg," the statement continued.

The society said it is "concerning" that only two of the 23 Salers bulls currently available in artificial insemination (AI) are four- or five-star within breed and said "inbreeding and a narrowing of the gene pool are a primary concern for the herd book".

"A shocking 48% of Salers bulls are considered one-star within the breed, bearing in mind that Salers have been bred as a maternal breed for centuries," the society stated.

"It's regrettable that the new figures no longer represent and are a true reflection of an animals value," the society statement concluded.