Farmers In Suckler Welfare Scheme Must Register Calf Births

The Clare Fianna Fail Deputy said the scheme will continue this year at the rate of 40 euro per animal and that payment will issue over the coming weeks in respect of the 2009 Scheme year.

He stated: "Clare farmers should be mindful that they must meet the various requirements under the scheme in order to ensure that they will qualify for payment in due course."

Minister of State Killeen said that the scheme had been very successful in its first two years. He continued: "The high standard of animal husbandry on participating farms is showing through when weanlings are being sold. The quantity of breeding information, a combination of ancestry, bulls used, performance data and weanling quality, now being collected on farms around the country and submitted to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation is already making a huge contribution to improvement in the genetic quality of the suckler herd. The real payoff will be in the long term and it is vitally important that we keep up the flow of data to the ICBF and at the same time maintain the high standard of animal welfare for 2010".

Minister of State Killeen also urged Clare farmers to take the opportunity of using better genetics in their herd by making use of ICBF services, including the bull search facility on the ICBF website www.icbf.com.

-ENDS-

Notes to Editor:
- High-resolution images of Tony Killeen, Fianna Fail TD for Clare, and Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, with special responsibility for Forestry, Fisheries and the Marine, may be downloaded from www.dunphyprimages.com
- For further information please contact Mark Dunphy of Dunphy PR at media@dunphypr.com or 086-8534900

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