Dairy and beef farmers will be paid €2/calf up to 25 calves in 2023 to continue with BVD tag testing, the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has announced.

The move is expected to support 80,000 farmers next year to test around 1.12m calves, through a €2.25m fund.

However, the total cost to farmers of tagging is closer to €8m, taking an average cost of €3.25/tag, before lab testing costs.

“This will target breeding herds and, in particular, smaller breeding herds where the relative costs are the greatest,” the minister said.

At the outset, BVD was costing Irish livestock farmers in the region €102m each year, the Department of Agriculture said, and these costs would have lasted into perpetuity if the eradication programme was not undertaken.

It had been expected that Ireland would move away from BVD tissue tagging next year to a herd surveillance model. However, to meet EU requirements for BVD freedom, Ireland must keep testing.

The minister praised the significant efforts made by farmers in the past decade, which has resulted in the incidence of BVD positive animals decreasing from 0.66% in 2013, the first year of the compulsory phase of the eradication programme, to 0.03% this year.

He said this has brought Ireland close to achieving the goal of BVD freedom.

“At this critical juncture, as we approach the achievement of BVD freedom, my Department will continue to provide a range of supports for BVD test positive herds to ensure that the risk of future disease breakdown is lowered and the risk to other herds is reduced.

“This will continue to deliver benefits to farmers by controlling and eradicating this disease.”

To reach BVD freedom, Ireland must achieve an 18-month period without the disclosure of a confirmed BVD persistently infected animal, with 99.8 % of cattle farms BVD-free, accounting for 99.9 % of the bovine population.