The Irish Beef and Lamb Association (IBLA) held a public meeting in Athlone on Wednesday evening to discuss the latest round of Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) €urostar evaluations, the impact the evaluations have had on farmers and pedigree breeders and their motion to bring a court injunction against the ICBF.

With less than favourable weather conditions on the night as temperatures plummeted to -5°C in the area, the mood inside the meeting certainly wasn’t as cool.

Over 60 farmers, pedigree breeders and breed society representatives attended the meeting to show their support of the IBLA’s injunction against the ICBF and to highlight their concerns.

Those in attendance were furious at the changes which came into effect on 28 November last and were anxious to find a solution to help those affected.

Those in attendance heard from IBLA western chair Eoin Donnelly, who said: “This isn’t just a SCEP issue, this is a national beef herd issue.”

A pedigree breeder added: “Star ratings don’t seem to correlate with the bloodlines and the genetic merit in terms of what those bloodlines can do.”

What next?

After strong support from the meeting, the IBLA will move forward with its injunction to try to prevent the ICBF from using the latest round of evaluations, should the injunction be granted.

Its first step will be to set up a Go Fund Me, which will be linked to its social media accounts, where it hopes to raise €5,000 to engage with legal representation.

If the legal representation advises, the IBLA will then move forward to collect €20,000 to bring the case before the High Court to acquire the injunction.

The Irish Charolais Cattle Society, Irish Limousin Cattle Society, Irish Simmental Cattle Society and Irish Belgian Blue Cattle Society were all in attendance on the night.