The Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) has developed a new webpage devoted to animal health and disease to assist and encourage farmers to record this important data.
Source: ICBF
The ICBF says it is devoted to staying on the cutting edge of genetic progress. Part of this focus has lead it to explore the genetics of health and disease.
“Any project that we want to make genetic progress on requires a lot of high quality data coming in from trusted sources, such as our farmers.”
The new webpage contains information on how to record health and disease traits such as congenital defects, lameness, pneumonia, mastitis, and scour among other diseases. Farmers will have to log into their ICBF account to record the data online, or they can send their data to ICBF through their farm software package.
According to the ICBF, the data collected will be used to identify animals who produce more robust progeny, along with helping keep track of illnesses for future culling. This is just the beginning of a project that will hopefully result in less paperwork and duplication for farmers in the future.
The page also lists a variety of diseases found on farms. By clicking on the disease you will be taken directly to the AHI website for information on the disease.
The ICBF says if there is anything related to health and disease that farmers would like to see on the website or be able to record in the future, send suggestions to [email protected].