Iceland’s minister of agriculture, Gudni Ágústsson, vice-chairman of the Progressive Party, said that it is out of the question to import DNA to mix into the Icelandic breed of cattle. Cattle farmer Ásthildur Skjaldardóttir told the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service that the farmers were more likely to raise a separate breed of cattle instead of interbreeding with the Icelandic stock.
Cattle farmers from Borgarfjordur passed a resolution yesterday that stated that preparation on starting to import DNA to mix with Icelandic cattle should begin soon. Ásthildur said that for the last few years farmers had been breeding better cattle but the results remain to be seen.
The minister of agriculture said, in his view, it is was also out of the question that a new breed of cattle be kept separate from the Icelandic but removing the overall milk quota was one possible way of increasing production.
Ágústsson is is very fond of Icelandic cows. In the year 2000, at the close of a meeting in Stóra-Ármót, in an incidence that was much photographed and still talked about, Ágústsson walked down to the cowshed and kissed the cow Skrauta.
