The delay in the issuing of calf ‘blue cards’ as a result of slow turnaround times on genotyping is “clogging-up” farmers’ workloads during what, for many of them, is the busiest period of the year.
That’s according to the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA), whose deputy president, Eamon Carroll, expressed concern about the turnaround time.
While he welcomed the decision by the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF), which collects and processes the genetic samples of calves, to make changes to offset the delays, Carrol said that, in addition to the time spent in the lab, farmers are still concerned about the postage time in getting the samples to the labs.
“February is probably the busiest month on dairy farms, followed by March, and farmers, depending on their system of production, need to move calves as soon as they are fit for sale.
“Delays in issuing blue cards are simply not acceptable and is heaping work on already flat-out farmers,” Carroll added.
The ICMSA deputy president said labour is tight on farm level, and farmers cannot deal with unexpected delays.
“Farmers entered the National Genotyping Programme in good faith to deliver further improvements from a sustainability perspective, and based on commitments given in terms of delivery of blue cards permitting the sale of animals,” Carroll said.
“Those commitments were entered into by ICBF and they must be delivered upon.”
He highlighted the difference that only a few days can make on farms.
“Calves could be fit for sale today, and tomorrow an outbreak of scour could occur that could render the calves unsaleable for a fortnight. We need that fast and efficient turnaround to ensure the system works and validates farmer commitment to the scheme,” Carrol added.
The ICBF said this week that, in response to the delays in the issuing of blue cards, a calf’s passport would issue automatically if the sample has been in the lab for 10 days.
However, the ICMSA is calling for the passport to issue within five days of registering the calf, saying that waiting for 10 days is “simply too long”.
“If the industry wants to maintain farmers commitment to this scheme, then farmers need to be able to sell their calves as normal and the genotyping programme will simply have to fit into that timeframe,” Carroll said.