Subsidies from some sheep societies are helping to bring genotyping costs down further, with one breed society seeing its members having to pay as little as €5/head.

The Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS) under the new Common Agricultural Policy is set to see successful applicants having to carry out a genotyped ram action.

Successful applicants to the scheme will have to complete this action once within the first three years of the scheme, while flocks with a reference number in excess of 150 ewes will have to complete this action twice over the duration of the scheme.

At a Sheep Ireland regional meeting held in Castlebar, Co. Mayo during the week, the topic of the costs involved in genotyping sheep surfaced.

The full cost of genotyping is €24.50/sheep. This includes the DNA sampling tag, sample postage costs, the genotyping process in the lab and the processing of results.

Sheep Ireland is subsidising this cost for LambPlus flocks by €9.50, so the cost for each genotype is €15/sheep genotyped.

Kevin McDermott of Sheep Ireland speaking about the SIS at the Ellison Hotel in Castlebar during the week

Some other breed societies are also contributing some subsidies.

Kevin McDermott urged farmers in attendance, who are involved in a society, to see can said society help in reducing the cost of genotyping animals by subsidising the cost further.

He gave the example of the Belclare Sheep Society, whose members can genotype for as little €5/head, through the help of the society further subsidising the cost of it to its members.

This is through Sheep Ireland subsidising the cost of this by €9.50, with the society itself topping that up by another €10 to leave the cost to its members at €5/sheep compared to the full price of €24.50/sheep.