The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue has said he is “delighted” to provide funding towards supporting rare breeds, as they are an “important resource” of livestock heritage.
Minister McConalogue said that the department has provided a native breed status to the following bovine and ovine breeds: Dexter; Droimeann; Irish Moiled; Kerry Cattle and the Galway Sheep.
These rare breeds are catered for by approved breeding programmes which have been recognised by Minister McConalogue in accordance with the EU Animal Breeding Regulations (Regulation (EU) 2016/1012).
This legislation sets out rules and standards for the breed society and breeding programme and acknowledges the “necessity of the preservation” of these rare breeds with limited number of breeding animals.
Minister McConalogue added:
“In the current ACRES Scheme, Tier I priority entry was available to breeders who could show proof of membership of a rare breed society and have an animal of that breed registered in the herd for the duration of the contract.
“This has provided new interest, with increased demand for these breeds and encouraged new membership for the societies.”
Rare breeds
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) also assists organisations to conserve and protect Irish rare breed farm animals.
These organisations can apply each year for funding of up to €1,000.
In 1982,DAFM introduced a scheme to maintain purebred Kerry cattle as the breed was “seriously” at risk of declining.
McConalogue said that he is “pleased” to continue to support this scheme and this year, he made a €120 payment per eligible calf available, subject to a max payment on 32 animals in any herd in a calendar year.
The minister added that rare breeds organisations have also “successfully” obtained funding to carry out research projects, such as, investigating genetic variation, and DNA sampling by Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) analysis.
Funding is available under the Genetic Resources Grant Aid Scheme to organisations for projects aimed at supporting the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources for food and agriculture.
The minister said that he is committed to supporting native rare breeds and their contribution to Ireland’s “unique cultural, historic and genetic” diversity.