The National Genotyping Programme (NGP) is in its 10th week, with over 300,000 passports now having been issued.

In the latest update on the programme, the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) said that 340,503 calf samples have been received in the lab to date.

Week 10 saw over 58,000 samples received in the lab, and more than 69,000 samples processed.

In the updated released today (Tuesday, March 5), it was also announced that the average turnaround time from birth to passport being issued, has reduced from 13.3 in week nine to 12.2 days.

The NGP is a collaborative initiative enabling Ireland to take the first step in achieving a fully genotyped national herd.

Genotyping programme

In the update from week 10 of the programme, it was announced that the average time from birth to sample being received in the lab was 7.2 days.

This is a slight increase on week nine, when it was taking 6.9 days on average.

The average time a sample spent in the lab last week was 4.2 days, which is done 0.5 of days on week nine.

With the overall time from birth to issuing of passport also down from 13.3 days in week nine to 12.2 days in week 10

The average turnaround time from birth to passport being issued was 12.2 days.

This appears to show a positive move in the time that it is taking for passports of calves to be issued, following the ICBF introducing a number of measures.

The week 10 update also shows that 340,503 calf samples have been received in the lab to date.

Some 317,764 calf samples have been genotyped, and 304,444 passports have been issued for calves in the NGP.