• Post category:News

The ICBF is happy to announce that genetic evaluations will now be published bimonthly commencing in January. This will mean that we will now publish evaluations six times per year rather than the traditional three times per year.

What does this mean?

Historically, there have been three genetic evaluations per year; April, August and December. The genetic evaluations will now be published six times per year, in January, March, May, July, September and November. So EBI and Euro-Star figures will now be updated six times per year.

Why are we increasing the number of evaluations per year?

At ICBF we receive data that can inform genetic evaluations on a daily basis. This is information that could be used to increase the reliability of the EBI and €uro-Stars and better inform breeding decisions. Currently, this information is only incorporated into the indexes every four months. Farmers who performance record and/or genotype their animals expect to see information to be reflected into the indexes of their animals as quickly as possible.

Dr. Francis Kearney, ICBF explains:

This wait could have been several months in the past. As the volumes of data being included in each evaluation will be less, it is anticipated that the average potential changes to an animals index based on new data will be reduced compared to the current schedule. With more evaluations there will also be less of a wait time for the next publication where the previous deadline was missed.

Where can I see genetic evaluation publication dates for 2019 and cut-off dates for submission of data and genotype samples?

These publication dates and cut-off dates for submission of data can be viewed at any time in our ‘Publication Schedule’ which can be found under the ‘Genetic Evaluations’ dropdown menu at the top of our page.

2019 Publication Schedule of Genetic Evaluations