October 23, 2013

Over the coming year as Ireland's Department of Agriculture rolls out the €23 million (US$32 million) Beef Genomics Scheme, up to 120,000 beef animals are set to be DNA tested.

This will triple the annual number of DNA tests being carried out by the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF), and officials within the organisation are hopeful that the increased buying power will allow them to supply the kits at a cheaper rate than the €30 (US$41) that farmers currently pay.

"This will effectively be the biggest genomic test of beef cattle in the world, so it is significant," said the ICBF's Andrew Cromie.

While DNA samples will be required from approximately 82,500 calves, farmers will be required to sample their stock bulls, which could number close to 40,000 head across the 35,000 farms expected to participate.

Cromie said that a well-run beef programme will return €15-20/head (US$21-28) a year and claims that this rate of improvement over 1.1 million beef cows would result in a cumulative gain of €15 million (US$21 million) per year.

"When multiplied up and discounted for future cash flows, this works out at about €500 million (US$688 million) after 10 years, which is the normal timeframe that we would be working on for genetic improvement," he said.

ICBF will select the calves they will want farmers to take DNA samples from, with a focus on older cows that have the most calvings and data recorded.

"The real benefits of this initiative are that it radically improves the reliability of the early information that a farmer gets on the breeding value of an animal. We would traditionally have had to wait for a cow to calve 10 or 12 times before we could accumulate breeding data that would be as accurate as the data we get from DNA testing a single calf," said Cromie.

ICBF is expected to start sending out test kits to farmers participating in the programme from next April or May. Farmers will be able to claim €60 (US$83) per calf, with no cap on the total number of eligible cows. The Department has estimated that the scheme will not attract in many additional participants above the numbers already signed up to the Beef Data Programme.