2025 marked another milestone year for the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) — a year defined by record-breaking data growth, major advances in genetic evaluations, and deeper engagement with farmers and industry partners nationwide.
As innovation in genetics and data-driven decision-making accelerates, ICBF continues to lead from the front, ensuring Irish farmers have access to world-class tools that improve efficiency, profitability and sustainability. From unprecedented uptake in genomic testing to enhanced breeding indexes and new digital solutions, the foundations for long-term progress across the national herd were strengthened once again.
A Year of Momentum and Measurable Progress
Progress across Ireland’s cattle breeding programmes remained strong throughout 2025, underpinned by close collaboration between farmers, AI organisations, processors, research bodies and DAFM. Genetic merit in both dairy and beef herds continued to rise, supported by record volumes of high-quality data flowing into the ICBF database.
National programmes such as Gene Ireland Beef, Dairy and Dairy-Beef remained central to this success, ensuring a robust pipeline of high-genetic-merit young bulls and delivering rapid reliability through coordinated progeny testing. At the same time, ICBF continued to deliver key national schemes on behalf of Government, including the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) and the Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme (DBWS).
Record-Breaking Genotyping: A Global Benchmark
One of the defining achievements of 2025 was the scale reached by the National Genotyping Programme (NGP). More than 6 million genotypes are now recorded in the ICBF database — a landmark achievement that places Ireland firmly among global leaders in DNA-based animal registration and traceability.
Participation remained exceptionally strong:
- Over 14,500 herds genotyped more than 870,000 calves during the year
- Phase 3 of NGP attracted an additional 3,700 herds, following a major recruitment drive
- By year-end, 18,600+ herds were enrolled nationally
This expanding genomic dataset is accelerating genetic gain across key national indexes, improving breeding accuracy and helping future-proof Ireland’s cattle breeding infrastructure.
Smarter, Stronger Genetic Evaluations
Genetic evaluations remained at the heart of ICBF’s work in 2025, with major enhancements introduced across both dairy and beef systems in collaboration with Teagasc.
Dairy: Reflecting the Modern Herd
- Updated Economic Values within the EBI to reflect changes in milk price, labour and production systems
- A significant base change, moving from cows born in 2005 to those born in 2015
- Introduction of an enhanced Health and Management evaluation, offering deeper insights into mastitis, lameness, temperament and milking speed
Beef: Aligned with Market Reality
- Revised Terminal and Replacement Index Economic Values, accounting for carcass price, labour and land costs
- Improved integration of international genetic data
- Greater use of farmer-recorded weight data from schemes such as BEEP and SCEP
Extensive stakeholder engagement, meetings and targeted communications ensured farmers clearly understood these changes — reinforcing confidence in Ireland’s world-class genetic evaluation system.
Commercial Beef Value: From Awareness to Action
Momentum continued to build around the Commercial Beef Value (CBV) in 2025. A dedicated communications campaign, combined with three well-attended Calf Buyer events, highlighted how CBV supports better finishing decisions by identifying animals with superior feed efficiency, carcass traits and earlier finishing potential.
A major highlight was the launch of the inaugural ICBF Beef Quality CBV Awards, supported by six major meat processors and the FBD Trust. Twenty-four farmers were recognised for excellence in data-driven beef production — showcasing how genetics and information deliver real on-farm results.
Tully: Data Driving Quality and Sustainability
The Tully Progeny Test Centre continued to deliver unique and valuable data throughout 2025, testing dairy cows, heifers, steers and bulls. Tully’s work in meat eating quality, feed efficiency, methane emissions and water intake is playing a critical role in positioning Irish beef as a premium product while supporting future environmental breeding strategies in partnership with Meat Technology Ireland.
Digital Tools Supporting Better Decisions
Farmer engagement with ICBF services remained strong:
- Nearly 25,000 beef and dairy herds benefited from HerdPlus decision-support tools
- HerdPlus herds consistently outperformed national averages across key performance indicators
- The HerdPlus app underwent major enhancements, with over 9,000 devices now using the platform
In parallel, the ICBF Nitrates Calculator was updated to reflect revised nitrate excretion rates, helping farmers more accurately project nitrogen and phosphorus outputs on farm.
Innovation in Animal Health and New Technologies
Significant progress was made in collaboration with Animal Health Ireland, strengthening IT infrastructure for national programmes such as BVD, Beef Health Check, CellCheck and Johne’s. Genetics also continues to play an increasingly important role in animal health, with TB resistance now included in both the EBI and Euro-Star Indexes — a major step toward integrating genetics into national disease-control strategies.
2025 also saw the launch of Genocells, an innovative SCC technology for fully genotyped, milk-recording herds, enabling individual cow SCC measurement from a single bulk tank milk sample.
Looking Ahead with Confidence
As ICBF looks beyond 2025, priorities remain firmly focused on:
- Strengthening the scientific foundations of genetic evaluations
- Expanding genomic testing and data integration
- Supporting farmers through environmental and economic change
- Enhancing digital tools and user experience
- Deepening collaboration across the entire agri-food sector
- A Strong Foundation for the Future
2025 was a year of delivery, innovation and impact. Record genotyping levels, enhanced evaluation systems, new technologies and strong farmer engagement have further strengthened Ireland’s cattle breeding infrastructure.
Through robust science, close collaboration and a relentless focus on farmer needs, ICBF remains firmly on track to deliver a more efficient, resilient and sustainable future for the Irish cattle sector.