Mark Walters told attendees at the ICBF and Sheep Ireland genetics conference that over 20,000 calves are to be DNA registered in 2020 as part of a pilot programme.

The programme is currently in its third year, with 18 herds participating in 2018 and 30 herds in 2019, during which time 3,000 calves were registered.

This is set for a drastic increase in 2020, with 270 herds set to participate in the coming 12 months. These herds are made up of 123 dairy herds, 105 pedigree beef herds and 41 commercial beef herds.

Passport return

Data collected so far showed that the average return of the blue passport following birth was 17 days. Over 85% of all calves received the blue passport within three weeks. This includes the seven days the sample is at the lab.

This pilot programme is being examined given that 15% of all cattle have a parentage error.

It also provides a number of key benefits including enhanced traceability through the food chain, prevention of cattle theft and greater confidence in calf-to-beef systems due to proven parentage.

Farmer feedback from the first two years of the pilot was mostly positive but some issues similar to the BDGP programme arose such as potential samples being mixed up, postage issues and poor-quality samples.