National Beef Welfare Scheme (NBWS).

tanko

So €35 per calf for meal feeding up to a max of 40 calves and €15 per calf for IBR testing up to a max of 20 calves.

No vaccinations or dung sampling.

Micey.ie

No word who pays for the IBR testing! Not much good if Dept don’t pay for it

hopeso

What happens to a calf that tests positive for IBR?

Hard Knocks

I guess anyone (like us) who give the pneumonia vaccines IBR live & RSV PI3 will show as positive

irishguy19772

Very very disappointed. Terrible scheme

dohc turbo2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120931939#Comment_120931939

300 for Ibr testing I read yesterday

sonnybill

Meal feeding is good as doing it anyway and it’s a good practice. iBR testing I severely doubt it that I get the 20 animals done for the E300 so that will eat into the E35 per calf for the meal

893bet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120933179#Comment_120933179

Up to 300, for 20 calves.

It’s not a great scheme. Not sure worth the hassle.

charolais0153

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120933396#Comment_120933396

35 a calf when all you have to have is a receipt for meal. Easy money

kollegeknight

I’ve only the 8 calves. I’ll be scanning cattle anyway so I’ll get vet to take samples then. It will cover the vet visit. I buy the meal anyway.

patsy_mccabe

Info here;

gov.ie - National Beef Welfare Scheme (www.gov.ie)

CLOSING DATE 12 September 2023 at 23.59 hrs

Sugarbowl

Anyone get a costing from their vet how much IBR testing will cost if doing the full 20?

Lime Tree Farm

https://thatsfarming.com/farming-news/ibr-in-herd/

IBR testing.

Fotish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058307739/national-beef-welfare-scheme-nbws

Where did you get the €15 figure from, is that just the Lab cost?.

I presume that figure does not include the visit of the vet?.

Silverdream

6 weeks meal feeding works out at over €20/head at current Weanling ration prices. Double that for Organic farmers.

IBR testing, feck knows what that'll cost as it's a Vet job to draw blood samples from the Calves. That's €100 call out plus the cost of the test which will be at least €5/head.

So it just about covers the meal feeding, with a few quid left over for yourself. If you are planning on meal feeding then I guess its worth the grief and ordeal of the blood sampling and feeding.

I'll have to pass this time round

mr.stonewall

Has anyone a link to the terms and conditions. I wean just at Xmas, just want to see will it work

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120944675#Comment_120944675

Scroll down and it's the first pdf.

https://www.gov.ie/en/service/73f93-national-beef-welfare-scheme/#

bogman_bass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120944437#Comment_120944437

€100 call-out fee? Ouch!

my vet is €45 for a call out

mr.stonewall

Looking at the fine detail, all weaning and meal feeding must be completed by the 1st of November. This rules out a lot of later calving herd. In my own situation cows calves in April - May and weaning take place just after Christmas. Weaning early for this scheme would mean that my cows would be idle and dry for an extra 2-3 months.

If welfare of animals is to be considered surely it's better to wean in a stable environment, rather than outside in a wet and miserable late October. I think this scheme is going to get a miss from this time

mr.stonewall

On the call out, for anyone considering the IBR, is to fit it in with scanning, cows will be in the yard, calves will be in the yard and potentially the vet will be in the yard

Anto_Meath

It's worth €1,000 gross to me. Now I ll be given the calves some meal anyway. But I don't know is it worth the trouble of getting 20 cattle blood tested for it. I had to blood test everything in the herd this year anyway due to a suspected case of BVD & it was a pain. It would be OK if I was doing a TB test or something & the vet could do two jobs at once. Like will the vets have the ability / resources to do this level of works within about 12 weeks considering their current work load.

Fotish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120947691#Comment_120947691

Having the vet in the yard got the herd test this morning , I mentioned the. NBWS scheme to him. This was the first he had heard about it.

He seem sceptical about doing that much IBR testing, he said wouldn’t have that number of tubes, although that doesn’t sound like a big problem.

More question than answers at the moment.

manjou

I for 1 am not going near it. Participatet in every sceme that they brought even the bvd 1 in voluntary year still at it..If they said to vaccinate against ibr then might have considered it. But after going through a tb test and genotypeing the calves not going to put me and cows through crush again. Vaccinate here every year and no problem. But as soon as cows see vet they not happy. Also the cynic in me thinks they might be ending bvd so need another scheme to replace it by saying big % of cattle have ibr so need to test yearly. If they have no evidence of ibr endemic in national herd they cannot advice for testing yearly.

patsy_mccabe

Ya, we must be getting to the end of BVD testing. These labs must be kept opened and staffed should we have another Covid type outbreak. Might as well have them doing something productive, in the meantime.

Siamsa Sessions

Just on the meal-feeding (from a calf-to-beef farmer who feeds meal to various groups)

If you haven't been feeding meal to weanlings, then there's a few costs involved: it's not just the meal itself. You need decent troughs - either make them yourself or buy from the local co-op (€230 for the last double-sided one I bought - you'd feed maybe 12-15 weanlings around it). Then you need to get the meal - either collect yourself or have a bin to get it delivered into the yard (€380 for the last 1/2 ton meal bin I bought). Then, draw it out to them every day. And lastly, move the troughs every time you move them.

Feeding meal is a good thing and straightforward overall. But there's more than just the cost of meal involved.

charolais0153

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120952294#Comment_120952294

blue barrels cut in half or a length of black jfc corripipe cut in half dont need anything fancy for weanlings

James2022

Might skip this one. Already have the calf up the crush for tagging, genotyping or castrating, weighing and potentially dosing if lungworms are bad before housing. Talking 20 calves off their mothers to put up the crush and have blood samples taken from their tails is going to drive them mad. Not to mention how unnecessary it is. My last case was 400 animals ago so it's pointless for me. Reading the post above about it, they are against vaccines for IBR unless your farm has it already.

It's getting hard to get a vet in my area and when I asked one over the weekend they were not happy to hear about a new testing scheme coming in. The call out, testing and postage fee will really eat into the payment. Not sure what clown came up with this idea but these schemes are for subsiding farmers, seems they've lost sight what that even means. There are so many more things they could have done.

893bet

Unsure also. Best case the scheme will pay for a half tonne of organic ration.

And all the bother against it.

On an ideal world you could do the IBR test, the weighing and the genotyping in the one handling. Might need two times up the crush as the vet won’t want to wait around for the other stuff but still the one day of hardship.

jfh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120952750#Comment_120952750

Can you not confirm which animals you want tested or is it chosen by the vet,say you have 20 calves ,them could you not blood the 20 mothers? think I'd prefer to leave the calves

Hard Knocks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120952750#Comment_120952750

Reading your post and remembering when every female had to be blood tested on the herd test. With the odd shout to the vets assistant that he’d just started a bull calf

James2022

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120952984#Comment_120952984

I remember those days haha.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120952955#Comment_120952955

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120952805#Comment_120952805

Looking at the information available it looks like we can test any 20 cattle on the farm. So you could test older animals going to the factory or mart as opposed to mothers and calves.

I also read this. There is a maximum payment of €1000. If you don't do the IBR testing you lose the €300 and a further €100 for not doing it so you end up with €600. Thats a big penalty but it's still good to know you can sign up just for the meal feeding and receive a maximum of €600 for doing so.