Has anyone signed up for The National Genotyping Programme with ICBF?
I'm in the SCEP scheme and I will be genotyping anyway under that. I see there is a FAQ document on ICBF.
ICBF Web Application
I ordered 18 tags sets for next years calves. (I wanted to order more but the dept restricted me to 18) but I still got the free tagger
National Genotype Testing.
PO Box 13637
FREEPOST FKE 7650
Naas,
Co. Kildare.
ANIMAL EXEMPT SPECIMEN
So you just ordered a button tag for the remaining double tag sets you have left over for next year calves is it?
I got a free tagger from Mullinahone Coop when I ordered the Genotype pair sets. Maybe its only for those in the program as I only found out when I went to order the tags
Has anyone got the address for the National Genotyping Lab??
I’ve previously sent the cow samples in the pre addressed envelope, and I need to send the bulls sample as I tagged him this morning…..
You don’t have to order button tags for calves born this year but you will for any calf born next year if you want to use up those tags left over from earlier this year. Yeah the department will cover the cost of sampling any remaining female animals you have which aren’t genotyped, there is an option not to do this if you want. They will send genomic tags out to you for these animals.
So I joined the National Genotyping Programme. Have a couple of young calves now and have some tags left over from earlier in the year.
Am I right in saying that I'll have to order the dna button tag now to sample these ?
Also is it Weatherbys I have to send the samples to be tested ?
I think The Department were saying they cover the cost of sampling you're remaining animals in 2023 ..
Thanks for the reply Tanco
A rite I didn't know that you can get the buttons.im sure that cost also.
I fully agree with you.i dose calf's every six weeks through the summer and always problems along the way aswell. So plenty of opportunitys to tag. along with when they are weighed (although some years this is done in the field 🤣)
Cost you money is all I can see aswell
Think my tagging for scep is 400 already and they want to add another 150 or more to it. Why not do them all for 6 euro.
Thanks again I think I'll leave it to them👍
If you want to use those tags you’ll have to order button tags with the same numbers to take the genomic sample.
As for farmers saying they won’t have to round them up for tagging when they’re older do farmers never have a sick animal or dose cattle or Ai cows or ever put their cattle into the yard during the summer? They’re must be lots of farmers who let their cattle out in the Spring and never have them in the yard til housing.
If you’re in the SCEP scheme joint the NGP will actually cost you more money afaik because you have to genotype every animal born on your farm.
Same as that. Given you have to weight them aswell that’s the same opportunity to have them in the crush and tag them so no extra handling.
The faffing around at the blue card stage waiting for sire confirmation would be a pain in the arse also.
Maybe so. But we tend to keep calf to beef (or near enough). The factories aren't paying extra for knowing the parentage and anyone buying to finish off the last couple of months is buying based on what they see rather than paper.
If there was no charge for it I think we'd do it to have all the cows done. Or even if going into it meant that the SCEP ones only cost 6 quid that might be something.
Of all the tasks with animals, tagging is one of the easiest. Once you can get them tight in the crush with their heads up you don't even need to try to restrain them. Just line it up and a quick pull on the tagger and it's done. They are going to be coming in for weighing anyway.
Well lads just have a quick question.
We usually run low in tags every and end up waiting for them and calf's waiting too...so I ordered a clatter of them for next year in advance before I heard about the ngp program .....I'm assuming I'd like at the loss of them if I join ngp program.?would I be rite in thinking that?
Also the main benefits I see is
Not rounding them up for tagging when older?
Besides that it is more money out of pocket if you go with NGP.?
Thanks in advance
The biggest benefit will be towards dairy beef breeding on both the cows side and also the bull. It will help to deal with some of the poor beef subindex breeding and also give confidence to what you are buying. As a calf rear, actually knowing what you are buying is half the battle.
In the next 3 years, I can guarantee that every calf in the country will be DNA sampled at birth to register it.
But we'd be tagging say 8 dairy calves @ 6 Euro per head cost to save some potential inconvenience with one suckler calf. Unless there is some other actual benefit or requirement that I must be missing
They’re tagged as calves so all parentage and genomics is done before they’re 30 days old. No more gathering up weanlings or yearlings and bringing them in to the pen to wrestle with them to get a tag in. Just makes life easier for everyone and all parentage issues/errors would be sorted at birth instead of months down the line when you may be tight for deadlines for schemes. That’s just my take on it anyways, €6 per animal to have it all sorted when they’re born is a no brainer really.
Applied for SCEP here. But I can't see the benefit of this. We have a few sucklers but you're talking only 10%.
My understanding is that we'd get all the cows genotyped now for free, but then have to pay 6 quid a head for all the dairy calves being done going forward. And the only "benefit" would be that we'd have the SCEP ones' tags at the start of the year?
Am I missing something? Because it doesn't seem that there is any real incentive to go to the bother
Everyone knows it's to give ratings to dairy beef stock, there's no big mystery or conspiracy about it. I'd say you'll be waiting a long time for any investigation however.
They must be struggling to get numbers signed up with the extension of the closing date,and I'm now getting texts asking me to sign up, they must be under pressure for numbers to meet there requirements. I've still not signed up. I'm really on the fence on this one
Genotyping is very important for a few reasons. It verifies both the dam and sire, but it also establishes which genes get carried from the parents. With ICBF, the calves start off as an average of both parents then goes up and down from the genotype results. If you have a polled calf, it will also verify if it is homogeneous polled (full polled) or heterogenous polled (half polled). No other way to do this before you have calves on the ground.
You'd be crazy now to buy a bull that is not genotyped.
I know they’re not going anywhere. To say it’s irrelevant whether the Eurostars are fit for purpose or not is laughable. There needs to be an independent investigation into what ICBF get up to.
Genotyping makes a massive difference in terms of reliability, and evaluations will come far sooner now. As for the Eurostars being a pile of crap, it's irrelevant really as they're going no where.
18e for SCEP genotyping & 6e for any additional calves under NGP scheme from my understanding of the scheme.
Difference also is tags available at calving Vs middle of the summer.
Time and hassle saved tagging at birth is worth that 6e extra to me anyway
I’m in SCEP and not going to join it. Cows and calves are in and out for Ai and dehorning so it’s no big deal to tag them. As for the star ratings, genotyping makes SFA difference. Overall the Eurostars are a pile of crap anyway.
🤣 I agree they aren't my numbers I was just trying to explain it.
As the cost of SCEP genotyping is 18euro - for the extra calves that have to be done next year on top of the SCEP requirement will they cost the 18euro or the 6euro mentioned ?
How does that work out as 70%? If your concern is paying for a few calves each year you must be really clutching the pennies! 😂. I can understand it for massive numbers maybe but not for less than 20 calves. Also the convenience of tagging and genotyping at birth is an obvious plus for it I think.
Yes but I'd only be required to genotype 10 calves for SCEP next year but will have to genotype all 20 for NGP if I go into it
It’s €6 each for the ones not needed to be done for the SCEP i think.
You won’t be regenotyping the cows every year. Just new born calves
The only thing is people in SCEP don't need to genotype all their calves each year - only 70% of their reference number.
So this scheme will now force us to genotype all of them and pay for it also if I'm correct.
Think it's a no brainer to join it really, especially for lads in scep. Animals will need to be genotyped anyway so it will be much easier to tag a new born calf than having to gather up all stock at some point in the summer. The problems of low reliability from icbf star ratings will be eliminated aswell. Everyone in scep should definitely be in it.
