Farmers buying calves in the future could use a new ICBF rating to decide what to pay for them.

Geneticist Margaret Kelleher detailed the Beef’s Own Worth (BOW) index, developed with Teagasc, at the ICBF breeding conference last Friday. The index values an animal at a point in time.

“The dairy herd is increasing year on year, with suckler animals reducing, and we are seeing more trading between the dairy and beef herds,” Kelleher said.

“At the moment beef farmers who purchase these calves have very little information on these calves other than age and breed.”

Kelleher said over 80% of calves are sold from February to May every year. “The big challenge for beef farmers is – how do I know what these calves are worth?

How do you decide what calves to buy?"

We are seeing more trading between the dairy and beef herds

The BOW index has been developed to help farmers assess the value of dairy beef animals based on predicted future carcase value.

The ICBF’s current terminal index takes into account carcase weight, carcase conformation, docility and feed intake.

The BOW will be based on genetics, breed, crossbreeding, dam effects such as age, parity, dairy percentage, and animal effects such as whether the calf was a twin or not.

It is currently undergoing a period of validation using 874 bulls and steers slaughtered over a two-year period of ICBF programmes. So far, the ICBF has found an increased correlation between BOW and slaughter weight when compared to just using terminal index.

Pilot programme

The BOW could be used in future to value a calf, based on its genetics, weight and age.

In the ICBF pilot programme, a calf has to reach a certain BOW value before it is sold. Lower genetic merit calves have to be kept longer to reach this minimum value.

BOW could affect how calves are sold. If it were displayed on mart boards, it could result in a more transparent way of valuing dairy calves. One of the biggest challenges is the DNA registration of calves and rolling this out on a national basis.