IFA President John Bryan has welcomed the announcement by the Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith to change the TB testing rules to facilitate the slaughter of cattle up to 18 months since their last test.

Mr Bryan said that IFA has campaigned for this change for some time in order to reduce significant cost and hassle for cattle finishers. According to him the new arrangements will allow for purchased-in animals to be slaughtered up to 18 months since their last TB test, provided the herd is in 12-month test. It will remove the necessity for most finishers to have private tests carried out on bought-in animals out of test.

The private testing of these animals immediately prior to slaughter has been a major cost to finishers because of the loss of weight from assembling heavy cattle twice in three days, the veterinary expenses and the distortion to normal sale. IFA Animal Health Project Team Chairman John Waters said this change to the TB testing rule for slaughter animals is part of IFA’s ongoing campaign to drive down costs and remove unnecessary red tape from day-to-day farming activities.

Mr Waters also said IFA will be monitoring the introduction of this new arrangement very closely in order to ensure the conditions are not overly restrictive on farmers and their ability to continue to trade as normal. “Our recent survey on TB testing charges identified average call-out fees of over €60 and €3.69 per animal tested. This new arrangement will remove this exorbitant and unnecessary cost for cattle finishers,” Mr Waters concluded.