Commercial Beef Value (CBV) is still relatively new. As part of a recent Today’s Farm article, Teagasc Future Beef Programme Advisor, James Mullane explained how it works and how to differentiate between a good and poor CBV.

While suckler farmers have heard of the Commercial Beef Value (CBV), some are still unsure of how it works and how to differentiate a good and poor CBV. Although its impact will be most significant in the trading of dairy beef animals, a CBV figure can also be very beneficial when trading suckler breed stock.

The CBV is made up of breeding traits which are economically important where animals are being traded for non-breeding purposes, i.e. the animals will be finished by the purchaser. Such enterprises want animals with good growth rates and good conformation to generate a high value carcass.

Age of finish is key as these buyers want animals that will finish as young as possible. Feed intake and docility are also important traits. Animals with low feed intake cost less to keep, while those with good docility require less labour and are safer to work with. The carbon cost is now also factored into the CBV.

How can the CBV help in the trading of suckler animals?

The CBV has star ratings similar to the Eurostar index. There are ‘across breed’ stars, which rank an animal’s CBV against the entire population and ‘within breed’ type stars, which rank an animal’s CBV only against animals of the same breed type. There are three breed types:

• Suckler (beef sire and beef dam),
• Dairy X beef (one dairy parent and one beef parent),
• Dairy X dairy (dairy sire and dairy dam).

How can it help in the trading of suckler animals?

A high proportion of suckler-bred animals are generally sold after weaning. For the most part, this is at seven to eight months of age and upwards. At this age, they have had a chance to mature and express their genetic potential for traits such as growth and conformation. A visual assessment of these animals will give a good indication as to their growth and muscling potential. However, traits such as feed intake and age of finish cannot be easily assessed by simply looking at an animal.

Take the example of a farmer purchasing suckler weanlings in the mart next October/November. There could be multiple lots passing through the ring where the animals are of a similar age, breed, weight and conformation. In the absence of a genetic value, the farmer will have to make a decision based on a visual assessment alone.

The heaviest animals may leave the highest value carcasses at finish, but they may not be the most profitable. The CBV looks at the overall profitability.

The CBV profile is available to all farmers on the ICBF portal if purchasing privately at home. Most mart boards will display the animal’s information if it has been genotyped.

Future Beef CBV survey of under-16-month bull finishing systems

As part of the Future Beef Programme, a number of under-16-month young bull finishing systems were analysed with the aim of identifying the effects of the CBV on age of finish and carcass traits. Young bull finishing systems were examined as this system of finishing was uniform across all participants in the programme, allowing for a good comparison between cattle of different CBVs.

Of the 23 participating farms in the programme, eight farms are finishing bulls under 16 months of age. The cows on these farms are generally high-replacement-index cows, mainly bred by Limousin, Simmental, Angus, Saler and some Aubrac. The terminal sires used are predominantly Charolais, Limousin and Simmental.

Within the group, 184 young bulls were finished. Using the beef finishing report on ICBF, the bulls were grouped according to their star rating. The number of bulls in each category are outlined in table one. From the beef finishing report, the beef carcass data was analysed for each star rating. The bulls were finished at an average of 15.3 months of age, ranging from 15.1 months to 15.6 months.

Table 1: Percentage of bulls in each star rating across the Future Beef farms

The carcass weight difference between the star ratings was significant, with the five-star animals having the highest carcass weight of 414kg versus 387kg and 355kg for three-star and one-star animals, respectively.

Table 2: CBV finishing profile for 184 bulls finished from 1^st January 2024 to 15^th April 2025 on Future Beef farms

This difference in carcass weight resulted in a sale price difference of €362 and €120 when comparing three-star and one-star animals’ sale price with the sale price of five-star animals. This difference is significant and shows the value of producing suckler-bred offspring with a high CBV.

Steer and heifer systems

A similar analysis was carried out within the Future Beef participants, focusing on suckler-bred steers and heifers. The results outlined show the differences in carcass traits and values for both steers and heifers across the star ratings. For the steers, the difference in carcass weights between the five-star and one-star animals was 81kg, which resulted in a difference in sale price of €755, favouring the five-star animals. The difference in finishing age between these star ratings was 75 days, with the one-star animals finishing 75 days earlier. This may be partly due to the animals achieving an ideal finish at a younger age due to early maturing genetics.

If we cost each extra day on farm at €1.65 (11kg dry matter (DM) @15cent per kg DM), the five-star animals consumed an extra €124 worth of feed. Allowing for the extra cost in feed, the five-star steers left an extra margin of €631 (€755-€124) over their one-star counterparts.

Table 3: Carcass values of steers and heifers finished from each of the star ratings

Similarly for the heifers, the difference in carcass weights between the five-star and one-star heifers was 79kg in favour of the five-star animals. Again, this difference in carcass weight resulted in a €621 difference in sale price in favour of the five-star animals. The five-star heifers were finished at 23.7 months of age versus 22.5 months of age, which is a difference of 36 days.

Taking the extra feed cost per day into account for the five-star animals – €60 for the extra days on farm (36 days @ €1.65 per day for feed costs) – this results in an increased margin of €561 (€621- €60) for the five-star heifers over their one-star counterparts.

An extra tool when buying animals

The traits which resulted in the differences in sale price between these animal categories include carcass weight, feed intake, carcass conformation and age of finish. These traits cannot be easily assessed by simply looking at an animal. Using genomic evaluations and the availability of the CBV on mart boards, farmers can make much more informed purchasing decisions. Yes, a visual assessment of an animal is still important, but access to genetic value in the form of the CBV will give farmers an extra tool when buying animals.

For more insights into how the CBV is being used on commercial suckler farms, read some further case studies here (PDF).

For more information on the Future Beef Programme, visit here.