The Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) has said that expanding the National Genotyping Programme (NGP) will not delay the issuing of passports.
The NGP is a collaborative initiative enabling Ireland to take the first step in achieving a fully genotyped national herd.
The programme, which is administered by ICBF, is based on a cost-sharing model between the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), the beef and dairy industry and participating farmers.
There are currently 10,529 herds participating in the programme, while over 1.3 million animals have been genotyped so far.
Genotyping
In February, ICBF confirmed that it was making a number of changes to the NGP to help speed up the returning of animal passports (blue cards) following concerns raised by farmers.
The federation has told Agriland that these issues have been addressed as more farmers are set to join the programme.
“Both ICBF and the genotyping lab are confident that increasing the numbers in the scheme will absolutely not lead to passport issuance delays.
“The delays seen in the spring of 2024 were due to teething issues. The relevant processes have been improved to prevent such issues in the future,” a spokesperson said.
The ICBF said that 664,850 passports have been issued to date in 2024, adding that the average turnaround time from birth to blue card issued over the spring was 11.3 days.
The NGP recently re-opened for new participants with the extended deadline for applications falling on Tuesday (August 27).
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue said that the programme is a “world-first initiative”.
“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,” he said.
Although the applications are still being processed, the ICBF told Agriland that based on the current trends it appears that around 87% of the new applicants are beef farmers.
“Once all of the paper applications have been submitted, we will email herds to let them know if they have been successful,” an ICBF spokesperson said.
It is expected that this process will take place over the coming two weeks.