ICBF has been presented with the ‘Smart Technology Innovation’ award at this year’s Leader’s Awards. The Leader’s Awards is an annual event that recognises achievement, innovation, and commitment to the tech sector in the southwest region. From global multinationals to schools and start-ups, the awards recognise those who have delivered outstanding results in the use of technology in their respective organisations and businesses.

The prestigious gala-dinner awards ceremony was held in Co. Cork and the awards recognise all those who have gone further than most in the use of technology in their respective organisations and businesses in the region.

Sean Coughlan, CEO ICBF commented:

“This is deserved recognition for a great team of talented and dedicated people.  They are committed to ensuring a vibrant agri-food industry, while dealing with the environmental challenges head-on.”

ICBF is the leading provider of information-based genetics services, we are based at our new Innovation Hub in Ballincollig, employing eighty-five people (largely from an IT/Genetics background, supported by Agri-Tech specialists to deal with customers)

ICBF is pioneering DNA traceability for cows on a scale greater than any other country worldwide. The purpose? To ensure that the future generations of cows in Ireland emit less carbon and demonstrate 100% transparency and traceability for consumers in the process.

Working in collaboration with Teagasc research in Moorepark, Fermoy to refine 160 billion data points to a concise figure that individual farmers can use to make decisions at farm level.

Traceability at the animal level is giving Irish Agriculture a clear picture of:

  • How climate efficient is the animal?
  • How profitable is the animal?
  • Should this animal be a mammy or daddy of the next generation?

Agri-food is a huge part of the rural economy in the Southwest. It provides tens of thousands of direct and indirect jobs. It also helps feed thirty million people worldwide (we export 90% of what we produce in both the dairy and beef sectors). We are helping farmers make Ireland’s carbon footprint lower by giving them the information to select those animals that are highly productive but produce less methane.

Dealing with 100,000 farms, our objective is to have every single bovine animal in the country genotyped. We have one of the largest databases of animal data globally. We process this data on a real-time basis as we receive new DNA profiles for animals and perform subsequent parentage verification/discovery.

We have been growing rapidly and have doubled our staff over the last 10 years. With the challenges facing agriculture and the sustainability requirement to do more with less, that growth will continue. Why? We have solutions, and importantly, as new research comes forward (internally, and from Teagasc), we have the capability to rapidly implement.

ICBF, a local organisation, providing global leadership in Agri-technology, with the purpose of furthering the social, environmental, and economic sustainability of the indigenous agri-food sector. We are providing leadership, not only in research, but more crucially in the implementation of world leading research in a highly technical space.