Minister announces Bovine Genotyping Programme to be opened for additional applicants
- Published on: 2 August 2024
- Last updated on: 12 April 2025
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, T.D., today announced the re-opening of Ireland's national bovine genotyping programme for new applicants. The application screens will go live on the ICBF web site next Tuesday, 6th August at 2pm.
The extension to the scheme first opened in May builds on the strong momentum and success achieved since the programme's launch, with over 10,600 participating herds and over 1.3 million animals genotyped to date.
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 re-opening of the programme, which is open to both beef and dairy herd owners, is aimed at maximising the number of animals genotyped under the current cost-sharing model between the Department, industry, and farmers.
"The genotyping programme is already facilitating the delivery of tangible benefits in terms of breeding decisions, which will have a knock-on benefit for climate action, animal health and productivity at farm level. Genotyped weanlings and store cattle that are being traded through marts have their Commercial Beef Value (CBV) displayed on mart screens. CBV is critical for rearers in purchasing animals and dairy farmers to receive feedback on breeding decisions. We have seen the influence of the CBV around the ring in recent months” the Minister added.
The Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) will continue to administer the programme.
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.”
ENDS
Notes to Editor
More details on the scheme can be found at the ICBF website: www.icbf.com/national-genotyping-programme/
To date the scheme has achieved:
• In 2023, over 700,000 breeding animals, from both dairy and beef herds, were genotyped.
• In 2024 to date, over 628,000 calves have been genotyped.