SCEP Scheme

There was always an issue where bulls producing the good calf had low on stars was annoying, as you said farmers got on with it. Then only certain data was been used and a few other things was just too far. I know breeders have been raising issues on stars to society’s for years. A main point was using high star lesser bulls and the damage this is going to bring

What ICBF are trying to do is breed a smaller suckler cow that is very fertile, very milky, good resistance to TB (this is a new one), very docile, good on her feet and passes good genetics on to her off-spring. Why the small cow? - well feeding the suckler cow is the greatest expense on a suckler farm and smaller cows eat less.

The problem is. smaller cows tend to have smaller lighter weanlings. To counteract this, ICBF want farmers to use high Terminal sires. These are easy calving so the smaller cow can calf these. Despite being easy calving they still grow away to give high carcass weights and conformation.

This is my understanding of it - am I wrong?

Weren’t the factories complaining the carcass size was too big. Which was then factories on by ICBF

I personally have never culled an animal based on the ratings and likewise I have never bulled a heifer based on the figures. Any heifers I wanted to bull let it be 1star if I wanted to keep them I did. But maybe I was never under pressure with anything as I use AI and overall my index’s would be high just for using AI.

I have no problem with the scheme either, play the game & take the money. Haven't made any decisions regarding cows kept based on stars. But again I use AI so most of my heifers / cows tick the boxes. I also have a few calf to beef heifers every year and they usually tick all the boxes too.

But I think last year ICBFs own report showed how the system was pointless. They annualised the weanlings sold from 1 -5 star cows to try and show 5 star cows as left more money. What it showed was weanlings from 1 star cows sold in general were heavier and made more money than from 5 star cows. (I could have told them that from looking at my own cattle) but they tried to justify it by saying 5 start cows are less expensive to feed & more fertile. Again looking at my own herd I wouldn't agree with that. I find my cows in general all eat the same.. & when it comes to fertility every year I ll have 1 -2 cows that don't hold the bull & they as liable to be 5 star as 1 star.

not so sure about the cows all eating the same. I have some Simmental cows and Jesus they never stop🤣 there like garage bins. Any left over silage that the weanlings won’t eat I give it to the sim cows and they generally get through it. Often there at night when a cows calving the full shed lying except the sim cows up eating there some animals to feed. I think every farm needs one just to reduce waste 🤣

Hi Im currently locked up having lost a few cows with tb and will be running tight to meet all the requirements this year for scep.I’ve been told that force majure isn’t recognised in scep and will have to pay back all the money received to date if I don’t meet requirements.I’ve reduced the yearly reference to try and help but still might not meet numbers required any advice would be appreciated greatly

Don’t notice that with our SIX cows. We’d have lots of different breed cows. The one thing I notice the Black HEX cows (whether suckler or dairy bred seam to roar more

Anto I’m locked up can’t buy and it’s more the calved cow percentage that has me beat,end June deadline

page 19 below.

https://assets.gov.ie/250454/07fff890-f963-4d26-9053-cae7770c61e7.pdf

my advisor told me .it looks from the terms that I should be okay for force majeur.I’ll check it out with dept just to be sure. Thanks everyone for help it’s devastating enough to loose half the herd after 30 years of breeding without scep annoyance

Sounds like you need a new advisor.. If losing half your cows to TB isn’t a case for force majeur i don’t know what is.

The cows that I have will eat everything that’s put in front of them , naturally I restrict what I feed them , otherwise there would be difficulty at calving time.

Another issue is good weanlings sold for export are sort of ignored. We don’t know their kill out so Carcass data is not available and if a bull has allot of calves exported they have little data records .

Plus the mart weight will tally in with the ICBF farm weights. Also depends on who buys them and how they finish them.