The aim of the CSP Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme is to provide support to dairy farmers to improve the health and welfare of the national herd by using better genetic merit beef sires. Applicants are required to have calves born in the scheme year which must be sired from a 3 or 4 or 5-star stock bull or from 3 or 4 or 5-star AI straws or a mixture of both to be eligible for payment in each scheme year that an application has been submitted.
Sires for this scheme must be:
- Genotyped – have a genomic evaluation
- A minimum of a 3-star rating on the Dairy Beef Index (DBI) within and/or across breed
- A minimum of a 3-star rating on the Beef-Sub Index of the DBI within and/or across breed
There is a screen available to all dairy farmers on their ICBF online account to see if the sires they are using are eligible and they can also check the number of calves born on their farm that are eligible for payment. This is available to advisers for their authorized farmer clients also.
This screen can be accessed when farmers log into their ICBF account and go to Services -> Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme on the desktop version when you login from laptop or PC.
This screen will display the number of calves born in the herd for the year and the number that are eligible for payment. The maximum number of calves eligible for payment is 50. The screen will also show the bulls that were used and if they are eligible or not. Any stockbulls in the herd are also displayed on this screen and their eligibility status is shown.
Farmers can also check the eligibility of stockbulls prior to purchasing them or AI bulls before starting the breeding season by checking the eligibility of the bulls on the Animal Search. When the tag number or AI code of the bull is put into the animal search -> select Dairy Beef and click on the DWBS Eligibility tab. This will show if either the stockbull will be eligible prior to purchase or the AI bulls selected are eligible for the scheme.
Dairy farmers should note all beef bulls need to be genotyped for the Dairy beef welfare scheme in order to be deemed eligible. Beef stock bulls can still be genotyped if not already done so. Farmers can contact ICBF or order online any genotype sampling kits.
If there are animals in your herd that are missing sires, there is a recording screen available to farmers on their ICBF account to record missing sires. This screen can be accessed by logging in and going to Record Events -> Missing Sires.
This recording facility to update missing sires is also available on the ICBF HerdPlus app to record on smartphone or tablet devices.
Animals currently in your herd missing sires can be updated using the record missing sires screen:
If there are animals that have left the herd without having a sire recorded, there is a drop down feature (historical) available on this page that allows farmers record missing sires for departed animals
Please contact ICBF on 023-8820452 or email [email protected] if you have queries on the ICBF Dairy Beef Welfare screen or on how to update any missing sires.