Today, Tuesday, 10th of June 2025 – The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, T.D., announced the re-opening of Ireland’s national bovine genotyping programme for new applicants.
The NGP was launched in 2023 and as a first step toward building a fully genotyped national herd. This world-first initiative integrates DNA sampling into calf registrations to verify parentage and deliver genomic evaluations for newborn calves. An additional 4,500herds were accepted into the programme in 2024, bringing the total number of participants to15,000. Farmers not currently participating are encouraged to apply.
Speaking this morning the Minister said:
“I am delighted to be extending this world-first initiative to more Irish farmers. The response to the programme has been very encouraging to date and by increasing participation, we are taking another significant step towards reaching my ambition of genotyping the entire national bovine herd.”
The NGP is a collaborative initiative that has been designed based on a cost-sharing model between the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine, the beef & dairy industry & participating farmers. Genotyping the national herd provides a huge opportunity for both the Dairy and Beef industry to accelerate in the rates of gain of our national breeding indexes (e.g. EBI, Eurostar & DBI), which will enhance farm sustainability & reduce carbon emissions.
At a farm level, participation in the NGP brings significant long-term benefits, including more accurate breeding decisions, improved herd performance, and access to cutting-edge genotyping technologies that future-proof farming enterprises.
Commenting on the announcement Sean Coughlan, Chief Executive Officer of ICBF said:
“ICBF welcomes the opportunity to bring more herds into the National Genotyping Programme. This builds on the excellent momentum gained over the course of the programme so far and will provide more Irish farmers with the tools to make informed, data driven decisions on farm.”
The NGP will reopen for new applicants from 2pm today, via the ICBF website www.icbf.com. Interested farmers are encouraged to apply as early as possible to ensure inclusion in Phase 3 of the programme.
ENDS.
For more information and to apply, visit www.icbf.com