The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine today released a press release announcing a simplification of requirements under the Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) in relation to the eligibility of Stock Bulls under the programme. It reads as follows:

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, T.D. today announced a simplification of requirements under the Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) in relation to the eligibility of Stock Bulls under the programme.

Participants in the programme using a stock bull are required to have at least one bull on their holding on the 30th of June 2019 who was a minimum of 12 months old and was rated at 4 or 5 stars on the Replacement and/or Terminal Index, within and/or across breed on the first genomic evaluation or the genomic evaluation at the time of purchase.

There are 2 simplifications to this requirement:

  • Where a bull on the holding had a published genomic evaluation and had been deemed ineligible as it was rated at 3 stars or less on that first genotyping evaluation, it can now be deemed eligible if the bull is now rated at 4 or 5 stars.
  • Where bull is in the herd on the 30 of June but has yet to be sampled, once a sample is received by the lab on or before the 30 June and the genotyping process has commenced, this will be considered eligible provided the bull is rated 4 or 5 stars on its subsequent genomic evaluation. This will mean that the July 2019 evaluation (published 22 July) and the Sept 2019 evaluation (published 23 Sep) will now be counted for eligibility purposes.

Minister Creed said “I am pleased to announce this simplification of the Stock Bull requirement under Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP).  Officials from my Department have been working closely with their counterparts in the ICBF on this issue and I feel this pragmatic approach to what is a key requirement should lead to as many participants as possible receiving their full payment in 2019 under this important Programme. They have identified a number of herds that are currently not meeting this requirement and will be contacting them in the coming days to advise them of their obligations under the Programme.”

Please click here to check out this press release https://www.agriculture.gov.ie/press/pressreleases/2019/june/title,128545,en.html