The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is considering how proposals around genotyping the national herd could be achieved with regards to the necessary funding, Minister Charlie McConalogue has said.
The minister is ambitious to ensure that the Irish beef herd is the first in the world to be fully genotyped. He said there is an “urgency” to deliver, however a serious amount of work has to be undertaken.
The potential of genotyping to deliver verifiable emissions reductions and economic benefits for farmers is being assessed and identified by the DAFM, Minister McConalogue said.
In response to the issue raised by Deputy Jackie Cahill in a recent Dáil debate, the minister said Ireland is “ahead of the curve” in relation to the current amount of genotyping through various schemes.
Stating that the DAFM will continue to engage with stakeholders with a view to taking forward the proposal to genotype the Irish national herd, Minster McConalogue said:
“Genotyping the national herd, and I think effectively in response the information that will be gathered from it, has the potential to impact positively on farmers’ economic as well as their environmental sustainability.
“Genotyping the national herd also would have a number of co-benefits, including providing a unique selling point in terms of traceability which is important for marketing quality produce, and providing certainty about the quality of dairy beef calves.”
Genotyping ‘ticks all the boxes’
Urging the minister to start genotyping the national herd as quickly as possible, Deputy Cahill said he would expect a “huge buy-in” from farmers for such a scheme.
Commenting on the environmental and economic benefits of genotyping, including the potential to reduce agricultural emissions by 10%, the deputy said:
“Yes, we have to face up to the battle of climate change but we can’t hinder our ability to produce food sustainably.
“I think genotyping the national herd ticks all the boxes – we can protect our production base and reduce our emissions.
Increased efficiency will bring significant economic gain to farmers, but as the first country with a carbon-efficient national herd it would also deliver a “huge advantage” in the market, he said.
“That ability to show that we are producing food sustainably and by genotyping our herd we can really tailor our breeding to bring across vast improvements and vast reductions in our emissions.
“In order to get this up and running and to gain the benefits from it, we need to commit to starting as quickly as possible,” the deputy said.