Genotyping pays off four to one: ICBF
It has revised its pricing policy, which reduces the cost as low as €22 for genotyping (recording the animal’s genetic make-up).
Since 2009, selection of bulls on the basis of genotypes has helped dairy farmers speed up genetic gain.
As the cost of genotyping falls, it has become more common to genotype all dairy females in a herd.
* Identify the best heifers to become herd replacements;
* Better prediction of an animal’s true genetic value, may result in better sale prices;
* Validate certainty of parentage of individual cows;
* Improve genomic selection reliability by increasing reference population animals.
According to ICBF, in the near future, genomics will allow farmers to avoid inbreeding or genetic defects.
Genotyping is available only to members of the ICBF HerdPlus recording system.
The €22 head charge applies if genotyping groups of females in a dairy herd, such as all 2015 females.
Commercial beef animals can be genotyped for farmer members of HerdPlus, or participants in the Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP), costing €22 for males or females.
Genotyping other bovines costs €30 or €50 per head.
