Conlan welcomes funding for cattle and sheep breed improvement – 09/04/13

Fine Gael TD for Cavan/Monaghan, Sean Conlan, has welcomed the announcement by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney TD, that funding of €2.164m will be provided in 2013 to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) and Sheep Ireland for cattle and sheep breed improvement.

“This funding will be used to improve the genetic quality of cattle and sheep produced in Ireland including the funding of a range of projects such as data collection, enhanced genetic evaluations and further development of the breeding indices to ensure they are appropriate for Ireland’s grass-based production systems. As such it is extremely important in developing the quality of our national cattle and sheep herd.

“I welcome the fact that Minister Coveney has made this funding available for the agrifood sector, despite the challenging state of national finances. This underscores the importance the Government places on the long term benefits that will accrue to Irish farmers and the economy generally from improving the quality of our National cattle herd and sheep flock.

“ICBF has also become a world leader in Genomics through collaboration with Teagasc and with financial assistance from my Department. Our grass based production conditions are recognised as being among the best in the world and Irish farmers have benefitted greatly from having animals bred in Ireland.

“The agrifood sector is the shining light of the Irish economy and is at the forefront of Irish exports. The value of meat and livestock exports in 2012 increased by 4% to almost €3 billion and despite a difficult year for global diary markets the value of dairy products and ingredients came to €2.66 billion.