Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Tony Killeen, T.D., has welcomed the allocation 1.5 million euro under the National Development Plan to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) for a range of beef, dairy and sheep breed improvement projects.
The Clare T.D. said that the Department has been providing funding to the ICBF for developing the cattle breeding infrastructure since its establishment and is very satisfied with the progress the organisation has made which has added significant value to Ireland’s heavily export-oriented Beef and Dairy sectors. He continued: “ICBF have clearly demonstrated that better breeding can add significant value to farm profit. Their programme is designed to improve the genetic quality and therefore to enhance the profitability of livestock production across beef, dairying and sheep and ultimately to improve the competitiveness of Irish agriculture benefiting all farmers”.
Commenting on the latest funding announcement, Minister of State Killeen stated: “On the cattle side, the funding will be focused on supporting the continued development of the beef and dairy data collection and information distribution systems, reviewing and enhancing dairy and beef genetic evaluation systems, and supporting a best practice cattle breeding campaign. Funding will also be provided towards the cost of the Gene Ireland progeny test programmes.”
He added: “The sheep programme will build on work commenced in 2009 to help move sheep breeding in Ireland to a new level of efficiency and effectiveness by developing world-class genetic evaluation systems, and data collection facilities. International expertise has been sought to establish structures that will help sustain a viable sheep production sector through the identification of genetically superior breeding stock. The new sheep breeding programme being developed by ICBF will be a unique combination of the best science available, along with traditional production methods which will help improve sheep farmer profitability.”
Funding will be provided to allow ICBF make further progress in developing Genomics Technologies, which Ireland has taken a lead role in developing. The rapid evolution of this new Science has improved the International image and quality of Irish cattle breeding, and justified Department funding over many years in developing the knowledge and skills base of ICBF.
