Have you signed up to the National Genotyping Programme? - Teagasc | Agriculture and Food Development Authority

Cattle farmers, whether suckler or dairy, have been given another opportunity to join the National Genotyping Programme.

According to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF), farmers who sign up can avail of labour and timing savings, along with facilitating safer practice, by enrolling in the National Genotyping Programme (NGP). These benefits include:

Exclusive access to new double tissue tags so that all of your calves can be DNA sampled at birth.
No more sampling with button tags – labour saving
No more waiting for tags to arrive or rounding up of animals for tagging – time saving
Much safer tagging newborn calves as opposed to older animals – safer practice

Additionally, by participating in the NGP, the ICBF explains, all calves will be fully parentage verified before registration, and animals will receive genomic evaluations soon after birth, facilitating the availability of Commercial Beef Values (CBVs) for calves, weanlings or store cattle at the point of sale.

Key benefits of the DNA registration will be parentage and sex verification. It will be of great benefit to farmers from an admin point of view, as it will eliminate paperwork required to correct registration errors that can occur during the extremely busy spring period.

Further benefits will include higher reliability data, thus allowing the truly best animals (verified rather than assumed) to be used as the source of the next generation of replacements. The potential to identify the best and worst performers in the herd for milk production, fertility, health and carbon will play a significant role in driving the industry forward and will be of great benefit to farmers who will be able to put their best team on the pitch by virtue of all this information.

What’s involved?

For new herds signing up in 2025, the ICBF explains, the programme will run from 2025-2027. From January 2026-2027, you would be registering your calves electronically, using the DNA registration process. This will mean taking a tissue sample from the calf at birth, posting to the relevant lab and recording the calves’ information online via Agfood.ie or using a farm software package. Once the DNA results are returned to ICBF, you will complete the registration online and a passport (blue card) will be issued.

For more information, including the costs involved and details on how to sign up to the National Genotyping Programme, visit the ICBF webpage here.