Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has said that there is urgency behind plans to genotype every beef and dairy animal in the country.

The Minister maintains that Ireland is already "ahead of the curve" in reaching this goal, as previous farm schemes saw the measure carried out on farms.

He suggested that discussions are under way between the Department of Agriculture and stakeholders to step out the plans, as well as how to account for the emissions savings of lower-emitting cattle.

Breeding more methane-efficient cattle was one of the “key measures” agreed upon by both the Food Vision dairy and drystock stakeholder groups.

Urgency

“Certainly, there is an urgency around this. I have outlined my ambition to make sure that Ireland is the first country in the world to have genotyped our full beef and livestock herd," Minister McConalogue said on Wednesday.

“That is something that I am now taking forward with my own Department and stakeholders. We are assessing and identifying the verifiable emissions reductions from doing that and also the economic potential in relation to it.

“We are ahead of the curve in the extent to which we use genotyping currently through the various schemes I have outlined.”

The Minister also stated that any economic benefits that result from genotyping should be felt by farmers.

Emissions targets

His comments came after his party colleague Jackie Cahill TD raised the issue in the Dáil on Wednesday.

Genotyping could allow for progress towards emissions reduction targets without reducing productivity, Deputy Cahill maintained.

“In order to get this up and running and to gain the benefits from it, we need to commit to starting as quickly as possible. I think we will get huge buy-in from farmers for the scheme,” the Tipperary TD told the Dáil.

“It will help us to meet our climate change targets and it will also deliver economic benefits to the farmer. I have always clearly stated that, in my view, proper use of technology and the modern advances that are there can actually benefit us environmentally and economically at farm level.

“This is an ideal vehicle to achieve that.”

Cahill stated that funds need to be committed to the farming sector to see genotyping plans through.

Read more

Genotyping the herd could deliver net benefit of €650m

Brexit reserve funding to kickstart genotyping of the herd