Over 13,000 sign up to improve dairy-beef breeding

A total of 13,155 applications were received for the CSP Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme, a scheme which offers a financial incentive to dairy farmers to use sires of higher genetic merit.

With a maximum payment rate of €1,000 available, successful applicants are required to have calves born in the scheme year that are sired by an AI or stock bull, or a mixture of both. The sire must be genotyped and have a minimum 3-star rating on the Dairy Beef Index (within and/or across breed) and a minimum 3-star rating on the beef sub index of the Dairy Beef Index (within and/or across breed). The latter consists of traits of interest to beef producers, such as carcass growth and value, feed efficiency, age at slaughter and temperament.

Making the announcement as part of a wider release on the 124,274 applications to the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) scheme, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue T.D. said: “The new CSP Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme is an important support to ensure the production of better-quality beef animals from the dairy herd. This scheme is one of the measures in the Ten-Point Action Plan on supporting Dairy Calf to Beef Systems in Ireland.”

The Ten-Point Action Plan on supporting Dairy Calf to Beef Systems in Ireland is an effort by various bodies, including the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Teagasc, Bord Bia, ICBF and Animal Health Ireland, to support the objectives of Food Vision 2030.

Contained within are actions that can be undertaken at farm level and at processing level that will ensure optimal calf health and welfare, and will facilitate greater uptake of dairy calf to beef systems. Action 3 of the plan focuses solely on Breeding and Genetics and includes: the CSP Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme; elements to promote the use of the Dairy Beef Index (DBI) and Commercial Beef Value at farm level; and a focus on accelerating the rate of genetic process within the DBI.