Today, Friday 2nd of August, ICBF is pleased to announce that the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (DAFM) has agreed to re-open the National Genotyping Programme (NGP) to new herds due to a shortfall in numbers from the original programme. This will allow an additional one hundred thousand animals be genotyped in 2024. Herds joining the NGP in this year will be required to genotype all their breeding animals and any calves born until the programme concludes in December 2027.
Speaking this morning the Minister said:
“I am delighted to announce that we are extending this world-first initiative to more Irish farmers. The response from the farming community to the programme has been very encouraging. By increasing participation, we are taking another significant step towards Ireland’s ambition of genotyping the entire national bovine herd.”
Suckler farmers participating in the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) will be given priority, followed by non-SCEP beef herds. Any remaining capacity will be offered to eligible dairy herds. This is due to the fewer beef animals participating in the NGP than originally targeted. Herds in the SCEP already have a very high percentage of their herd genotyped and genotype a large proportion of their calves yearly. Therefore, SCEP herds will get all the benefits of the NGP for a small additional investment.
The pricing structure remains the same for herds joining in 2024. The breeding animals in the herds will be genotyped for free as a once-off in 2024. Each calf will cost the farmer €6, with the remaining €12 genotyping cost made up from industry and DAFM funding. For herds participating in SCEP, the genotyping cost deducted from their SCEP gross payment will be adjusted to account for the €6/calf already paid by the herd. The genotyping fee will be payable to ICBF and must be paid before any genotyping is processed.
ICBF CEO Sean Coughlan commented on the reopening of the NGP, stating that:
“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 voluntary programme began in 2023 and has been a huge success. So far, in 2024, over 657,000 calves have been genotyped through the NGP. At peak, more than 98,000 samples were processed in one week. During the busiest period in the spring, the turnaround time from birth to blue card was under 12 days.
Genotyping the national herd provides the Dairy and Beef industry a unique opportunity to increase its sustainability credentials globally. With this programme, Ireland will become the first country in the world to provide a DNA-verified traceability system. This pioneering step will accelerate the rates of gain of our national breeding indexes (e.g., EBI, Eurostar, and CBV), enhancing farm profitability and reducing carbon emissions.
The programme will be open for online application from 2pm on Tuesday 6th August via the ICBF website.
Ends.
For more information on the National Genotyping Programme, please call the HerdPlus office at 023-8820452 or email [email protected].