A farm organisation has told two bodies to contact An Post over apparent issues relating to "delayed post" and how that may impact calf registrations.

Animal Health Ireland (AHI) and the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) have been called on to take "urgent action" in relation to postage issues in advance of peak calving season.

According to the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association (ICMSA), over the past number of months there has been issues with postage, with the farm organisation claiming that some post has not arrived at the end-destination for up to two weeks after the initial posting date.

Michael O'Connell, the association's livestock chairperson, said: "This is serious and we need AHI and ICBF to reach out on this issue to An Post before the onset of the peak calving period this spring and sort it out if we are to avoid a mess.

"Spring calving is stressful enough without farmers panicking and worrying as to whether their BVD [bovine viral diarrhoea] samples or genotyping samples have reached labs," O'Connell added.

He also said it is important for farmers to receive cards as soon as possible following on from farm sample testing and registration.

"Considering the period we are in, it is crucially important that farmers receive 'blue cards' as quickly as possible to allow farmers to market their calves and achieve optimum prices this spring," O'Connell said.

Commenting on the recently announced increase in the price of postage stamps, the ICMSA livestock chairperson said that the association does not welcome an increase in costs at any time, but that the ICMSA acknowledged "how businesses have to work".

"That's not the issue; the issue is that we are being asked to pay an increase for a service that seems to be losing reliability at present. That's a different matter and that's unacceptable," O'Connell said.

Postage stamp costs

An Post has confirmed that the price of a national stamp will increase by 20c to €1.85 from Tuesday, February 3.

A new €3.50 stamp for letters to anywhere in Europe, including Britain, is being introduced, marking an increase of 85c.

An Post said the increase is in line with global trends and below the EU and British benchmark of €2.04 for domestic next-day letter service.

A new 'Rest of World' stamp will be priced at €3.95, which An Post said is required to "stem significant losses" on this category of outgoing mail due to a 38% fall in international letters over the last three years.