The ‘Stockbull Finder’ is a sales tool on www.icbf.com designed to help farmers around the country in sourcing Stockbulls from herds with excellent levels of data recording.   As a result of extensive data recording, the €uro-star indices are of a higher reliability, which in turn provides the farmer with more confidence in the figures.

Bulls from WHPR (Whole Herd Performance Recording) herds that have been independently weighed and scored by ICBF are displayed on the Stockbull Finder. Once participating pedigree herds complete their whole herd visit with an ICBF scorer, all of their pedigree bulls that were present at the visit that meet the correct age criteria (10 months – 3 years) are automatically put up on the ‘Stockbull Finder’.

The ‘Stockbull Finder’ is one of the benefits to pedigree breeders that participate in WHPR as it automatically provides a platform to advertise their bulls for sale post WHPR visit. There are now 500 pedigree breeders in the program which ensures a variety of breeds are available across the country. For more information on joining WHPR please click here.

From the point of view of the purchaser, all of the information required to make an informed decision prior to purchase can all be found in one location and has been verified by ICBF and the relevant breed society.

“The ‘Stockbull Finder’ is absolutely unique, as it is the only search engine for beef bulls in Ireland where all of the bulls have been independently weighed and scored by ICBF before being displayed.”

Since its launch in 2018 the Stockbull finder has had over 70,000 hits and this continues to grow year on year. There has been great feedback from both sellers and purchasers who found the Stockbull finder an excellent platform for business.

How to use the Stockbull Finder?

Step 1: Go to www.icbf.com & click on the ‘Stockbull Finder’ logo on the website homepage.

Step 2: Insert your search criteria as regards: Location, Breed & Stars.

Step 3: Scroll through the bulls that came back from your search. Click on the ‘Owner’s’ name to get the phone number to ring, to enquire about possibly buying the bull.

For example, the following is what the ‘Stockbull Finder’ brings back when the following criteria are put into it:

Location: Cork

Breed: Simmental

Stars: From 4 to 5 stars on Replacement Index

Displayed below is an example of a young pedigree Simmental bull from a Cork herd herd that is up on the Stockbull Finder since he was weighed at his WHPR visit in December 2019.

All of the bull’s weight data is shown by clicking on the ‘Show’ button in the ‘Weight’ column. As can be seen, John, like a lot of other breeders in this programme are also weighing their calves at birth. The bull below had a birthweight of 44kgs.

A lot of bull buyers get an increased confidence about how a bull has been fed & reared by seeing this weight data.

Leeherd Larry 352 is a 5 Star genotyped pedigree Simmental bull with a birthweight and multiple liveweights recorded on him to date.

This bull is bred & owned by John Finnegan, Coachford, Co. Cork.

John who joined the WHPR program in March 2017 had his most recent whole herd visit on the 28th of December 2019 where all of his pedigree animals were weighed.

All of his young pedigree bulls are automatically advertised for sale on the ‘Stockbull Finder’ after the visit.