Simmental Society issues statement on AGM outcome

The Irish Simmental Cattle Society hosted its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Saturday, December 14, in Tullamore, Co. Offaly.

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."

Society president Willie O`Halloran described the meeting as a "very engaging". He said: "All members were given every opportunity to contribute to the debate which was very informative before the motions were put to the floor”.

The cattle breed society president said: "The changes to the ICBF evaluations in November 2023 have been so drastic that there are putting breeders out of business, a lot of our best cows are being culled based on these evaluations."

"Breeders must try and protect the livelihoods and genetics from total erosion."

The society said it supports the recent call by the Pedigree Cattle Breeders Council for an independent review of the ICBF evaluations.

The society statement confirmed that the society has raised "a number of concerns" regarding the makeup of the evaluations.

The Irish Simmental Cattle Society highlighted the following as key reasons why it has 'lost confidence' in the ICBF and the evaluations produced:

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  • The Society said that the cost of keeping a cow was increased by 30% in November 2023 while the value of weaning live-weight was only increased by 3%. It highlighted that the cow cost "is based on estimates" and said "ICBF do not use the data collected by farmers as part of the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) scheme";
  • The society believes that the current evaluations "have no alignment with reality". It believes this because "the model has a value of €3.95/kg cow carcass weight and only €4.68/kg for prime beef base price. Last week farmers were getting €5.30/kg for cows and the average steer base price was €5.74/kg. When you devalue production while increasing costs in a model, less productive animals rise to the top."

The Simmental society has said it "would welcome engagement to finally address the lingering issues" and added that "a workable evaluation system that restores farmer confidence in the process must be the end goal".

The Simmental Council said that it "respects the decision" its members took at the AGM and said "our breeders and the industry as a whole, deserve better".

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