The National Genotyping Programme (NGP) is now in week 11, with 367,037 passports issued from the programme to date.
The programme, 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.
The NGP is a collaborative initiative enabling Ireland to take the first step in achieving a fully genotyped national herd.
The latest update from the Irish Cattle Breeders Federation (ICBF) which is up to March 12, 2024, shows that 52,000 calf samples were received in the lab in the last week.
There were 58,000 samples processed in the lab in week 11, with an average turnaround time from birth to passport being issued of 12.1 days.
Genotyping programme
In week 11 of the programme, it was taking 6.8 days on average from birth to samples being received in the lab.
This is down from week 10, when it was taking 7.2 days.
The average time a sample spent in the lab last week was 3.6 days, again, this is down from week 10 when it was taking 4.2 days.
There has been 401,351 calf samples received in the lab to date, with 377,166 calf samples genotyped to date.
In total, there has been 367,037 passports issued for NGP calves to date.
Calf registrations
There has been 874,561 calves registered up until March 8, which is down slightly on the same period in 2023 – when 916,568 calves were registered.
For the week ending March 8, there were 103,511 calves registered on Irish farms.
Registrations to dairy dams have reached 770,615, which again, is down slightly on 2023 figure when 795,409.
Calves registered to beef dams have reached 103,946 up until March 8, this is also down on 2023 when 121,159 were registered.