An Post increases the cost of sample postage by 19%

Farmers posting BVD samples to laboratories and DNA samples to the National Genotyping Programme (NGP) lab in Co Kildare are going to face increased postage charges as An Post announced this week that it is increasing the charges for postal services for envelopes and parcels.

The current cost for posting an envelope containing tissue samples is €2.95, but this is set to increase to €3.50 – which is a 19% increase in the cost. This is the cost for posting large envelopes of up to 500g in weight.

While the recommendation is to post no more than 10 samples in an envelope, technically a lot more than 10 samples can be included in the envelope before the 500g limit is met.

Every year we hear reports of samples going missing and bags being ripped by the sorting machines, resulting in lost specimen.

The more that are included in a bag, the higher the likelihood there is of samples falling foul of the sorting machines in the An Post sorting depots.

The increased cost of postage is a direct hit for farmers for participating in programmes, such as the BVD eradication scheme and the NGP. For a 100-cow dairy herd that is enrolled in the NGP and that posts the BVD samples to the lab, the total cost of postage will now be €70, an €11 increase on last year, presuming 10 samples are posted per envelope.

Many farmers that live close to the BVD testing labs hand-deliver the samples.

I know of one discussion group in Laois that nominates a different member of the group each week to deliver the BVD samples on behalf of the group members to the Enfer lab in Naas, Co Kildare.

They do this to avoid the postage fee, but also to avoid mishaps with the samples being delivered or getting lost, etc.

The Weatherbys genotyping lab, which is located in the same industrial estate in Naas as the Enfer lab does not have a facility to allow for samples to be dropped off. Instead, that lab only accepts postal samples.

Top tips for sampling

Avoid mixing BVD and NGP or DNA samples together. The DNA samples for the NGP programme are always pink and should go into the pink envelope that comes in the box of tags. These pink envelopes are already addressed to the lab in Kildare, but require a postage stamp.

Samples should be posted regularly to ensure there are no hold-ups with getting blue cards issued. Keep samples in a safe place prior to posting, they should ideally be kept in a fridge.

Farmers are free to shop around to different labs for BVD testing but there is only one lab for genotyping. Most of the BVD labs provide plastic envelopes for samples to be posted in.