Farmers who don’t register and complete training for a new bovine genetics scheme will see their area-based payments cut by 10% in 2028 and 15% thereafter, a committee of MLAs has been told.
Participation in the bovine genetics project is to be one of three conditions attached to the Farm Sustainability Payment (FSP), due to be fully rolled out in 2026. However, the three conditions are being introduced gradually, starting with participation in the soil nutrient health scheme (SNHS), followed by bovine genetics and then farm carbon benchmarking.
In the case of bovine genetics, the original plan had been that, on top of the training element, farmers who owned cattle would have to get all their breeding animals genotyped in the first year.
However, there have been some concerns within industry about how many conditions are being attached to the new FSP. With some members of the Stormont Agriculture committee also unsure, it is understood that DAERA officials recently decided to amend their proposals relating to the bovine genetics project.
As a result, at last Thursday’s Agriculture committee, it was made clear that the decision to genotype cattle will be optional for farmers. But if cattle farmers want to avoid an initial 10% cut to their FSP, they will still have to sign up to the bovine genetics project and do the associated training, to be provided by CAFRE. That training will be made available from September 2026 at the latest and can be done either online or face-to-face.
“In specific reference to genotyping, there’s no conditionality, yet. So, you don’t have to genotype,” Paul McHenry from CAFRE told the committee last Thursday.
It was put to McHenry by former DAERA minister, Michelle McIlveen that this position was confusing for farmers, although ultimately, she said she had wider concerns about various conditions being attached to future payments.
“The conditionality that we’ve put in place is one; you need to register and two; do the training – it is not that onerous on a farm business,” responded McHenry.
Unfair
Before the meeting concluded, McIlveen said she wanted time to discuss the issue with industry stakeholders, adding it was “unfair” the condition around bovine genetics would only apply to cattle farmers, not those growing the likes of arable crops.
“The second part of that will be that while at this point it is voluntary, there’s a likelihood that once this now gets into place, that it will then become mandatory and that will require threats to future payments,” she said.
Officials want the relevant legislation in place by December 2025, although to meet that target date, they will need to get the Agriculture committee onside.
£16.6m set-aside to DNA-sample NI cattle
A total of £16.6m in government funding has been approved in NI, which will allow cattle farmers to genotype all their breeding animals and young calves as part of the bovine genetics project.
At last Thursday’s Stormont Agriculture committee, DAERA officials explained that genotyping is essentially a lab procedure which analyses DNA to identify genetic differences between animals.
The plan is that all existing dairy and beef cows, female youngstock and breeding bulls on farm between 1 September 2026 and 31 December 2027 will be genotyped. In addition, DAERA funding will cover the cost of genotyping all calves born into the herd in 2027. Samples will be obtained using a tissue tag. Farmers will have until 15 May 2028 to submit all samples to an approved lab. The government funding will cover a cost of up to £13 per head, paid to the farmer for each eligible genotype received into the scheme.
“In arriving at that figure of £13, we have had a wide pre-market engagement across the industry and that’s what’s seen as being a good estimate of the actual cost. We don’t see it exceeding that cost,” confirmed Paul McHenry from CAFRE last Thursday.
Encouraged
Even though the Department has said cattle farmers will not be penalised if they don’t genotype their breeding animals, it is something that producers will be strongly encouraged to do.
Back in 2022, the industry-led not-for-profit organisation, Sustainable Ruminant Genetics (SRG) was set up by the Ulster Farmers’ Union, Dairy Council for NI, Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC) and the NI Meat Exporters’ Association (NIMEA). Now led by CEO John Moore, SRG’s main role is to work with DAERA on supplying data from marts, meat plants and dairy processors, as well as promotion and marketing of the project to farmers.
“We want the industry to do the genotyping. That’s where we want SRG to drive that on because it will deliver significant improvement,” confirmed McHenry.
Behind the scenes, the database holding all the genetic information etc. is being built by the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF). The ICBF has also engaged the services of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) to provide genetic information for the NI dairy sector.
A tissue tag is used to obtain a sample from a breeding animal.
Bovine project aims to
accelerate genetic gain
By matching up genetic information to performance data supplied by marts, meat plants and dairy processors, the bovine genetics project will provide farmers with evidence to help them make better informed breeding decisions to accelerate the rate of genetic gain.
“Genetic improvement in cattle can deliver long-term and permanent changes to a range of desirable traits, leading to more profitable, efficient animals with reduced greenhouse gas emissions,” said Paul McHenry from CAFRE.
Among those desirable traits could be issues such as improved feed efficiency or identification of the myostatin gene, which is often linked to harder calvings in sucklers.
“The key issue is that the vast majority of breeding decisions are [currently] made in the absence of robust information to identify an animal’s genetic potential. Most breeding decisions are based on the visual appearance of the animals and the breeder’s intuition,” added McHenry.
Bovine TB
One other potential significant benefit from the project could be to help farmers identify animals and lines of breeding more resistant to bovine TB.
Previous research in the Republic of Ireland has shown that 12% of the variability in TB infection is controlled by the genetic ability of the animal to fight off the disease.
“We’re not going to solve the TB problem, but it’s going to allow farmers to make some progress in terms of those animals that are resistant. The key benefit of genetics is that when you make those gains, they’re cumulative and they’re locked in,” said Francis Breen from CAFRE.
Not all stakeholders are fully on board
At last Thursday’s Agriculture committee meeting at Stormont, there were a number of questions asked about whether an Agricultural Policy Stakeholder Group was totally on board with the new bovine genetics project. This group, initially formed in 2021 as part of a process of engagement between DAERA and industry around the formulation of agricultural policy, is made up of representatives from farming, food and the environment.
“We have engaged with the Ag policy stakeholder group and there is a range of opinions coming from the various stakeholders, but the overall opinion from the group is that they see the benefits of delivering this programme,” said Paul McHenry from CAFRE.
He was asked by Strangford MLA Michelle McIlveen to clarify whether those “range of opinions” included some dissenting voices.
“So yes, some of them some of them aren’t completely convinced, but they do see the merits of the programme,” McHenry responded.
Farmers who don’t register and complete training for a new bovine genetics scheme will see their area-based payments cut by 10% in 2028 and 15% thereafter, a committee of MLAs has been told.
Participation in the bovine genetics project is to be one of three conditions attached to the Farm Sustainability Payment (FSP), due to be fully rolled out in 2026. However, the three conditions are being introduced gradually, starting with participation in the soil nutrient health scheme (SNHS), followed by bovine genetics and then farm carbon benchmarking.
In the case of bovine genetics, the original plan had been that, on top of the training element, farmers who owned cattle would have to get all their breeding animals genotyped in the first year.
However, there have been some concerns within industry about how many conditions are being attached to the new FSP. With some members of the Stormont Agriculture committee also unsure, it is understood that DAERA officials recently decided to amend their proposals relating to the bovine genetics project.
As a result, at last Thursday’s Agriculture committee, it was made clear that the decision to genotype cattle will be optional for farmers. But if cattle farmers want to avoid an initial 10% cut to their FSP, they will still have to sign up to the bovine genetics project and do the associated training, to be provided by CAFRE. That training will be made available from September 2026 at the latest and can be done either online or face-to-face.
“In specific reference to genotyping, there’s no conditionality, yet. So, you don’t have to genotype,” Paul McHenry from CAFRE told the committee last Thursday.
It was put to McHenry by former DAERA minister, Michelle McIlveen that this position was confusing for farmers, although ultimately, she said she had wider concerns about various conditions being attached to future payments.
“The conditionality that we’ve put in place is one; you need to register and two; do the training – it is not that onerous on a farm business,” responded McHenry.
Unfair
Before the meeting concluded, McIlveen said she wanted time to discuss the issue with industry stakeholders, adding it was “unfair” the condition around bovine genetics would only apply to cattle farmers, not those growing the likes of arable crops.
“The second part of that will be that while at this point it is voluntary, there’s a likelihood that once this now gets into place, that it will then become mandatory and that will require threats to future payments,” she said.
Officials want the relevant legislation in place by December 2025, although to meet that target date, they will need to get the Agriculture committee onside.
£16.6m set-aside to DNA-sample NI cattle
A total of £16.6m in government funding has been approved in NI, which will allow cattle farmers to genotype all their breeding animals and young calves as part of the bovine genetics project.
At last Thursday’s Stormont Agriculture committee, DAERA officials explained that genotyping is essentially a lab procedure which analyses DNA to identify genetic differences between animals.
The plan is that all existing dairy and beef cows, female youngstock and breeding bulls on farm between 1 September 2026 and 31 December 2027 will be genotyped. In addition, DAERA funding will cover the cost of genotyping all calves born into the herd in 2027. Samples will be obtained using a tissue tag. Farmers will have until 15 May 2028 to submit all samples to an approved lab. The government funding will cover a cost of up to £13 per head, paid to the farmer for each eligible genotype received into the scheme.
“In arriving at that figure of £13, we have had a wide pre-market engagement across the industry and that’s what’s seen as being a good estimate of the actual cost. We don’t see it exceeding that cost,” confirmed Paul McHenry from CAFRE last Thursday.
Encouraged
Even though the Department has said cattle farmers will not be penalised if they don’t genotype their breeding animals, it is something that producers will be strongly encouraged to do.
Back in 2022, the industry-led not-for-profit organisation, Sustainable Ruminant Genetics (SRG) was set up by the Ulster Farmers’ Union, Dairy Council for NI, Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC) and the NI Meat Exporters’ Association (NIMEA). Now led by CEO John Moore, SRG’s main role is to work with DAERA on supplying data from marts, meat plants and dairy processors, as well as promotion and marketing of the project to farmers.
“We want the industry to do the genotyping. That’s where we want SRG to drive that on because it will deliver significant improvement,” confirmed McHenry.
Behind the scenes, the database holding all the genetic information etc. is being built by the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF). The ICBF has also engaged the services of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) to provide genetic information for the NI dairy sector.
A tissue tag is used to obtain a sample from a breeding animal.
Bovine project aims to
accelerate genetic gain
By matching up genetic information to performance data supplied by marts, meat plants and dairy processors, the bovine genetics project will provide farmers with evidence to help them make better informed breeding decisions to accelerate the rate of genetic gain.
“Genetic improvement in cattle can deliver long-term and permanent changes to a range of desirable traits, leading to more profitable, efficient animals with reduced greenhouse gas emissions,” said Paul McHenry from CAFRE.
Among those desirable traits could be issues such as improved feed efficiency or identification of the myostatin gene, which is often linked to harder calvings in sucklers.
“The key issue is that the vast majority of breeding decisions are [currently] made in the absence of robust information to identify an animal’s genetic potential. Most breeding decisions are based on the visual appearance of the animals and the breeder’s intuition,” added McHenry.
Bovine TB
One other potential significant benefit from the project could be to help farmers identify animals and lines of breeding more resistant to bovine TB.
Previous research in the Republic of Ireland has shown that 12% of the variability in TB infection is controlled by the genetic ability of the animal to fight off the disease.
“We’re not going to solve the TB problem, but it’s going to allow farmers to make some progress in terms of those animals that are resistant. The key benefit of genetics is that when you make those gains, they’re cumulative and they’re locked in,” said Francis Breen from CAFRE.
Not all stakeholders are fully on board
At last Thursday’s Agriculture committee meeting at Stormont, there were a number of questions asked about whether an Agricultural Policy Stakeholder Group was totally on board with the new bovine genetics project. This group, initially formed in 2021 as part of a process of engagement between DAERA and industry around the formulation of agricultural policy, is made up of representatives from farming, food and the environment.
“We have engaged with the Ag policy stakeholder group and there is a range of opinions coming from the various stakeholders, but the overall opinion from the group is that they see the benefits of delivering this programme,” said Paul McHenry from CAFRE.
He was asked by Strangford MLA Michelle McIlveen to clarify whether those “range of opinions” included some dissenting voices.
“So yes, some of them some of them aren’t completely convinced, but they do see the merits of the programme,” McHenry responded.
SHARING OPTIONS