Tag supply companies, such as Mullinahone, Cormac tagging and Datamars, will be notified by the Department of Agriculture when a sample is found empty in the lab. This new protocol was being trialled this week and will be in place from Monday morning, the Irish Farmers Journal understands.

This will speed up the issuing of a retesting tag for the calf. Farmers are advised to contact their tag supply company to finalise arrangements should they have empty test samples.

The IFA said it has been campaigning for the new protocol since the end of last year and welcomed the move, but added that more needs to be done to curb the rise in empty samples.

“This is very much a short-term measure to reduce the impact of the unacceptable increase in empty samples in the BVD programme,” IFA animal health chair Pat Farrell said. “The Department of Agriculture must identify the contributing factors to the increase in empty samples and have these resolved in advance of the issuing of tags for the 2019 calving season.”

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New empty tag protocol in place from next week

In an attempt to address the rising number of empty BVD samples, a new protocol has been put in place.