The Minster for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, has outlined the amount of funding allocated to the genetic improvement of the national beef herd.

Responding to a parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil TD Michael Moynihan, Minister McConalogue said:

"My department's investment in improving the genetic merit of beef sires in the national herd is spread across three separate measures."

The National (Bovine) Genotyping Programme (NGP), commenced in 2023 and will run for a five-year period, open to both dairy and beef breeding herds.

Minister McConalogue explained that the programme aims to provide "the building blocks for breeding decisions and strategies" through the genotyping of the calf crop each year in the participating herds.

The minister said that year one of the NGP cost €10.7 million which was funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).

The total estimated cost of for each subsequent year is €15 million which he said: "Will be funded using a strategic public/private cost-sharing model between DAFM, milk and dairy processors and participating farmers".

The minister said that DAFM's contribution "will amount to €5 million/year over that period".

The CAP Strategic Plan (CSP) Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) aims to support farmers in improving the environmental sustainability of the Irish beef production system by incentivising participants to undertake mandatory actions that will improve the overall genetic merit of the suckler herd.

One of these actions is the use of eligible (higher genetic merit) bulls or artificial insemination (AI).

The minister said that to date, total payments of €56.5 million were issued to almost 17,000 participants in respect of year one of the SCEP.

"This equates to an average payment of approximately €3,300/beneficiary" and added that "a similar payment run is envisaged in subsequent years", Minister McConalogue added.

The CSP Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme (DBWS) aims to provide funding support to dairy farmers to improve the animal health and welfare of the national herd by using better genetic merit beef sires.

The scheme runs from 2024-2027 and has a budget allocation of €6.25 million annually.

The minster highlighted that the latest scheme data indicates that approximately 10,500 participants with over 286,000 calves are currently eligible for payment.

He said: "The actual number of animals on which farmers will ultimately be paid cannot yet be determined because the scheme year coincides with the calendar year. Payments for scheme year one will be made in March 2025 and annually thereafter until 2028."