Irish cattle population at 6.6m for 2003

THERE were more cattle than people in the State during 2003, the Cattle Movement Monitoring System (CMMS) report for the year has revealed.

A population of 6.6 million cattle was recorded last year. There were 2.14m calf births, almost 1.5m mart movements, over 800,000 farm-to-farm sales and some 2.3m disposals.

Agriculture and Food Minister Joe Walsh, announcing the publication of the report yesterday, said the CMMS is a central computerised database, which holds data on the birth, movements and disposal of all cattle born or imported into Ireland.

He said that while the original purpose of the CMMS was to provide a database of the origin, identity and life history of cattle, the uses and value of the system have gone well beyond the original design.

“The system is now routinely used for contact tracing for animal diseases such as TB and Brucellosis, cohort tracing for BSE and to assist in the testing and certification requirements of a variety of schemes such as certification of beef for Russia, determination of age for BSE testing.

It is employed as a marketing tool for Ireland’s beef export industry.

Mr Walsh said further improvements to the CMMS were being made on an on-going basis.