The ICAR activities are managed by Sub-Committees and Working Groups.
This section presents the Sub-Committees that are the following:
Animal identification Sub-Committee
Purposes | Stimulate development and evaluation of identification devices. |
Species – Breeds – Traits | Cattle, Sheep, Goats and Buffalo . |
Standards & Guidelines | Manufacturer & device codes. Conventional tagging and identification systems. |
Services & Other | Performance evaluation and approval Test Centres Testing electronic tags Survey of available devices ISO registration agency Evaluation of conventional identification devices. |
Issues & Points for Discussion | Strengthen linkage with ISO WGII dealing with agricultural standards for data interchange. |
Responsible | Jo Quigley |
INTERBULL Sub-Committee
Purposes | Development of international comparisons of cattle |
Species – Breeds – Traits | Cattle Dairy Breeds in Developed Countries Milk production traits Conformation, Health, Fertility etc |
Standards & Guidelines | Genetic evaluations International comparisons |
Services & Other | International genetic evaluation service Surveys of genetic evaluation practises Workshop Meetings Publications Research |
Issues & Points for Discussion | Merge INTERBULL membership with ICAR membership and manage as a single membership. A proposal to go to INTERBULL members for discussion at the August business meeting is to be developed by Brian Wickham in consultation with Executive Board. The meeting will be attended by representatives of the ICAR executive board;Expand into more traits, breeds and countries;Expand into beef traits – a proposal needs to be developed in association with the Beef Performance Working Group – action to be taken by Schild and Wickham. |
Responsible | Matthew Shaffer (Chairman) |
Measuring, Recording and Sampling Devices Sub-Committee
Purposes | Approve milk volume measurement devices |
Species – Breeds – Traits | Cattle, Sheep, Goats, Buffalo All Breeds Milk production traits |
Standards & Guidelines | Milk volume determination Sampling devices |
Services & Other | Milk meter testing service Survey of equipment used by members |
Issues & Points for Discussion | Need to decide how to handle testing for weighing scales for cattle, ultra sonic devices for body composition and beef quality devices. |
Responsible | Steven J. Sievert (Chairman) |
Milk Analysis Sub-Committee
Purposes | Improve efficiency and effectiveness of milk testing laboratories |
Species – Breeds – Traits | Cattle, buffalo, sheep & goats All breeds Milk composition including somatic cell conc. |
Standards & Guidelines | Quality assurance Milk analyser testing protocol Analytical methods |
Services & Other | International DHI reference laboratory network. Collaboration between members of laboratory network. |
Issues & Points for Discussion | Chairperson to consider enlarging group membership so as to obtain greater geographical and technical representation. |
Responsible | Christian Baumgartner |