The National Genotyping Programme (NGP) was introduced in 2023 with the goal of being the first step on the road to having a fully genotyped national herd. NGP is a world first in using DNA samples as part of calf registrations to verify parentage and provide genomic evaluations for newborn calves.
Aidan McKeogh runs a suckler herd near Killaloe in County Clare alongside his wife Rocio. Aidan has been participating in the programme since 2024. All stock on the farm are fully genotyped and every calf born on the farm is sampled at birth using double tissue tags. Aidan recently completed his first calving season following the DNA calf registration process and found it a very straightforward process.
“It makes perfect sense for me to take the DNA sample at birth as I’m already tagging the calf, then just post off the sample and register my calf same as always! Job done”.

Aidan runs a 30 cow suckler herd in a 100% spring calving system and also works off farm so time management and labour saving is crucial. Aidan has been partaking in the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) and as part of that is required to genotype 70% of his reference number each year. By sampling animals at birth, He doesn’t have to wait for button tags or hair-cards for SCEP and then round up and bring in animals for sampling at a later stage. It is also much safer and easier to tag and sample newborn animals than more mature animals. Aidan would have some ground away from the main farmyard so not having to worry about rounding up animals on an outblock for tagging was an attractive proposition when deciding whether to do NGP or not.
“It has happened in the past where I’d just have put a batch of heifers out to an outblock and then the tags for genotyping would arrive and I’d be trying to bring them back in to tag them, taking the samples at birth has certainly saved labour there”.
In terms of breeding, Aidan has used a lot of AI over the years to produce high quality, high Replacement Index females for his own herd and for selling as breeding heifers. Aidan would sell surplus breeding heifers every year both privately and through special mart sales
“All the information we get through the genotype along with the performance of the animal on the ground is what I use when picking which heifers are retained as replacements in my own herd and which are put forward for sale as breeding heifers.”
On cows he doesn’t want a replacement from he opts for high Terminal Index bulls to produce quality progeny for selling. The average Replacement Index of the cows in the herd is €123 which ranks the herd in the top 10% nationally. The average calving interval for the herd is 372 days compared to a national average of 397 days.
He uses a wide variety of breeds from AI including Limousin, Saler, Charolais, Angus and Simmental. With Aidan working off farm, calving ease is an important consideration for him along with a strong emphasis on quality. He wants cows to be able to calve unassisted while also producing quality calves for sale and finishing. Looking at the sires of his 2024 calves, Aidan used 11 different AI sires which an average Replacement Index of €120, average Terminal Index of €113 with a carcass weight Average PTA of 24kg.
Breeding replacements and rearing them nowadays costs a lot of money so having as much information as possible available to Aidan is very important when deciding what animals to retain or sell.
Aidan also keeps a terminal stockbull on farm in to serve any cows that don’t get AI’d, or don’t go in calf to the AI. By genotyping all the calves as their born he straight away knows which ones are from the stockbull and which ones come from AI. This is also important for Aidan from an inbreeding point of view. Making sure he has the correct sires on the animals ensures he avoids any risk of inbreeding in the future.
“Being sure of the sires for the calves makes things easier when it comes to subsequently breeding those calves and picking bulls to breed them to”.
Aidan regularly weighs stock to monitor average daily gains and the weaning performance report is a report he would often look at when assessing how well cows and calves are doing.
“ The average daily gain and the weaning report are very useful information when seeing which cows are doing the business in the herd.”
The National Genotyping Programme has not only made meeting sampling requirements for SCEP easier for Aidan it also provides him with more information for making decisions around breeding by verifying which AI bull the calf is from and providing genomic evaluations for the calves at a young age. Animals sampled at birth, receive genomic evaluations at a young age, increasing the reliability of their Eurostar figures well before they are selected/sold for breeding and confirming their eligibility for SCEP.
For more information on the National Genotyping Programme, or to sign-up, go to www.icbf.com.