Weighing is a core action under the new Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP), making up to 20% of the yearly payment. The requirement is to weigh the cow and calf, on the same day. The calf must be over 50 days of age and not yet weaned from its dam. The ideal time to weigh is when the majority of calves are in the 5 to 8-month stage. With over 18,000 farmers in SCEP who will have to weigh animals, farmers are advised to book scales in plenty of time as demand may be high at peak times. Currently 73% of SCEP participants have some animals weighed, which is 3% ahead of where we were this time last year.
There are 268,821 eligible pairs weighed across13,564 herds.
Scheme participants are reminded to ensure that they have a valid scales, registered or linked to their herd for their date of weighing. Weights will not be accepted unless they can be linked to a scheme registered scales.
To hire a weighing scales, please visit Weighing ICBF – ICBF
Herd owners should ensure the cow and her calf are weighed on the same day and before the calf is weaned.
You have several options when recording the animal’s weights, these include:
- ICBF weight recording mobile app.
- Online Services on icbf.com – Log In – ‘Services’ – ‘BEEP-S or Dairy Beef Programme’ – ‘Record Weights’.
- Farm Software package.
- Record on Animal Events notebook and transfer online afterwards.
- Weight Recording Form (if online is not an option). These can be requested from ICBF (023-8832883)