Farmers offered option of on-farm or remote audit by Bord Bia

Farmer explaining something to an inspector with a clipboard while looking at his cows in a barn.

On-site and on-farm Bord Bia audits recommenced this week. But farmers have the option of the on-farm audit or a remote audit.

They get an 18-month certification period if their on-farm audit is successful, 12-month certification with the remote audit.

In March, Bord Bia suspended on-farm audits and granted certification extensions to affected farmers.

In late April, a new remote audit process was piloted and subsequently rolled out across all schemes.

As of August 2, 7,940 remote audits have been conducted on beef and sheep farms, and a further 2,208 on dairy farms.

Bord Bia says all its auditors must complete training on safety procedures relating to Covid-19, and take part in the Bord Bia Return To Audit Survey. 

They must also use the Government COVID Tracker App on the day of each audit to confirm they do not have Covid-19 symptoms before arriving on farms.