The roll-out of beef genomic evaluations by ICBF and Teagasc has been deferred until August. This decision was taken at an ICBF beef industry meeting which took place on Monday 25 April 2016.
The reason for the deferral is due to a desire from the wider beef breeding industry (AI companies, herdbooks and suckler farmers) to have genomics for female fertility included as part of the change. This work will not be available until August.
The alternative was to go with genomics for all traits EXCEPT female fertility now, and add the genomics for female fertility in for August. However, the industry meeting felt that it would be better for farmers and the industry, if we introduced all changes at once so as to minimise the extent of changes that farmers see in the short term.
In the meantime, if you need to pick heifers or bulls, pick the highest Euro-star ratings available from the current evaluations, based on the relevant index. The majority of animals will not move significantly. Even after genomics is introduced, Euro-star ratings for animals will change as animals get more data/performance records in the system and as our genomic evaluation systems improve in the future.
