ICBF are conducting this anonymous survey to gauge your perceptions of disbudding (dehorning) and its impact on your farm. The economic value of Polledness has been assessed in the past and applied in ICBF indexes for beef cattle. The economic value focused on the direct costs to suckler beef farmers of either undertaking the disbudding themselves, or contracting the farm relief service to do it. No account was taken of the hassle and animal welfare factors associated with disbudding.
This paper presents a short set of survey questions to assess the attitude, and effective cost of disbudding to both beef and dairy farmers in Ireland.
Results will be used to prioritise and value breeding strategy options to increase levels of polledness on beef and dairy farms in Ireland.
We would really appreciate if you could take five minutes to complete this short survey below.