Sitting before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, ICBF chief executive Sean Coughlan confirmed that to date, up to 19,000 herds had returned genotype samples and calving surveys to the ICBF as part of the Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP).

Coughlan said that the number of tags coming in to ICBF had rapidly increased in recent weeks as farmers housed cattle and completed the tagging process. The total number of applicants in the scheme is 27,790.

However, Coughlan did warn the committee that unless the genotype samples from the remaining 9,000 or so farmers was returned by 1 December, it was unlikely their applications would be processed in time to receive payment before Christmas.

Read more

Getting paid under the BDGP scheme