Beef Newsletter - April 2023

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In this month's edition:

• Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme
  On Monday March 20, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) launched the new Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP), which succeeds the old Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP). You can apply via Agfood.ie until midnight on May 22, 2023. It is a five-year programme, which will run up to the end of 2027. There are five main actions in the Programme as follows:
  
  • Action 1 – Eligible bull/eligible AI
  • Action 2 – Female replacement strategy
  • Action 3 – Genotyping
  • Action 4 – Weighing and submission of weights to the ICBF
  • Action 5 – Calving details and surveys
• Research Update - Decreasing age at slaughter
  Aidan Moloney, Edward O’Riordan, Mark McGee and Paul Crosson of the Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Teagasc Grange report on decreasing the age at slaughter of early maturing suckler heifers. Slaughtering animals at a younger age is one strategy suggested to decrease methane emissions from beef cattle. There is also a view that younger animals have superior meat eating quality. This study examined the effect of decreasing the slaughter age of early maturing breed-sired suckler heifers on carcass fatness, feed conversion efficiency and meat quality, when slaughtered at the same carcass weight from a similar ration.
• 12 steps to reducing emissions
  Over 12 months, the Teagasc advisory newsletters will outline one action per month farmers can take to reduce their emissions. This month the focus is on step four - Reducing chemical nitrogen use.