The Irish Zwartbles Sheep Association (IZSA) is in a deadlock situation with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) over its application for zootechnical (pedigree) certification.

The department has put its application on hold due to the existence of two Zwartbles societies in Ireland – which the department, in a sense, wants to become one entity in order to approve the application; however, this is not what either Zwartbles society wants, Jim Croke of the IZSA has said.

Jim, who is the public relations officer (PRO) of the association, spoke to Agriland about this issue during the week.

He said: “We were under the umbrella of the UK Zwartbles Sheep Association but in 2010 we formed an Irish branch – called the Zwartbles Sheep Association Southern Ireland Branch – while working alongside our colleagues in the UK.

“However, with Brexit coming at us, back in December of 2020, with the advice of the department we looked at establishing a flock book with Sheep Ireland for the breed and bring our pedigree information from grassroots over here – because with the UK leaving the EU, we then wouldn’t be able to trade within the EU unless we got set up here ourselves and get pedigree certification with the department.

“In order to have that, we had to have a legal entity and that’s how the IZSA came about late last year.

“We then developed a breed programme. We got our rules and regulations in place and then we put an application together for the department for breed entity recognition and a breed development programme – and lodged it.”

Department deadlock

“The department then came back to us and said that they wouldn’t be able to process our application, because of the fact that there were two Zwartbles societies here in Ireland,” Jim continued.

“So a meeting was held with the department, Sheep Ireland, the IZSA and the other Zwartbles society which formed back in 2018 to see how we could move forward.

“We said originally that the flock book would be open to all breeders of the breed, including those of the other group – Zwartbles Eire.

“However, they wanted to go their own way and they felt instead of them coming back to us, that they should join with them. But we didn’t think this was feasible, as we had already established a flock book and Sheep Ireland was only going to hold one flock book for the breed and not two and that’s what the department wanted too – to only have one.

“Talks then broke down between the two societies because neither wanted to go with each other,” he added.

“Everything is at a standstill at the minute. The department is saying because there are two entities, that they won’t allow one to move forward without the other.”

“We have over 750 odd breeding ewes and over 3,500 animals on our system going back with history – so we have a significant amount of animals,” Jim continued.

“We don’t know what the other society has but we believe it’s a significantly smaller number than what we have.

“The department is saying that if they allow us to move forward, that because the other society is so small, that it would limit their gene pool and I suppose, prevent them from progressing.

“But, this hold up – the department needs to realise – is now limiting our gene pool. We are in a deadlock situation. We are trying to breed sheep within ourselves and we have breed sales in Holland and other countries in Europe that we can’t fulfil because our animals are not zootechnically certified.

“We feel it’s unfair as we are limited in how we can progress the breed here and be able to trade within the EU.

“We have everything we need to get certified, but we are being held up at the 11th hour because of the other society wanting to go in there own direction.

“We just want to develop the breed, better it and expand it. The breed has huge potential and is growing bigger and bigger here in Ireland. It also is a great breed of sheep for a start-up flock.

“We are in a deadlock, situation; we feel it’s very unfair that the department won’t process our application and approve it; we are the original group here in Ireland and feel we should be allowed to move forward,” Jim concluded.