{"id":1333477,"date":"2024-06-24T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-24T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.agriland.ie\/?p=1333477"},"modified":"2024-06-24T10:46:27","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T09:46:27","slug":"should-nis-entire-cattle-population-be-genotyped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/farming-news\/should-nis-entire-cattle-population-be-genotyped\/","title":{"rendered":"Should NI’s entire cattle population be genotyped?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Genotyping Northern Ireland\u2019s entire cattle population will help revolutionise its dairy and beef sectors, according to the chair of the Sustainable Ruminant Genetics (SRG) programme, Victor Chestnutt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chestnutt said: \u201cSecuring genetic information on this scale is an approach that will help deliver improvements in the levels of performance and efficiency achieved across our cattle sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cIn the first instance, the significant impact on the carbon footprint generated by both the dairy and beef industries will be immense, once farmers are armed with this specific information.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Chestnutt went on to confirm a number of specific benefits, which the work of SRG will deliver. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt a very fundamental level, identifying the parentage of individual calves becomes a very straightforward task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhere dairy is concerned, once all milking cows within a herd have been genotyped, the taking of a bulk milk tank sample should allow the identification of each individual cow\u2019s cell count figure on an almost real time basis,” he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n