ICAR/Interbull Annual Conference 2021

Dear Colleague,

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we had to postpone the 2020 ICAR-Interbull conference. We are pleased that we now can announce that the next ICAR-Interbull conference will be held from April 26 till April 30 2021. It will be a virtual conference with the option to be present at the World Trade Center (WTC) in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, the latter under the condition that the circumstances then will allow.

The Conference

Presenters in the Conference Sessions will be asked to prerecord their presentations. These will be made available as videos to the participants ahead of the conference. The conference sessions itself will be held every day between 2 and 5 PM CET. These will consist of short summary pitches of the concerned presentations and a discussion with options for remote participation.

When live participation in person is feasible, the ICAR General Assembly and the Plenary ICAR - Interbull meeting on Wednesday 28 April 2021 will be turned into sessions with live presentations on stage and a livestream for remote participants, also here including options to join in the discussion. The same applies for the Interbull Meetings and the ICAR Wrap Up Session on Thursday 29 April 2021.

Physical Presence at WTC

WTC can arrange for close to 200 seats in the lecture rooms with at least 1.5 meter distance. Thereby, WTC has professional facilities available for online video conferences with a large group of delegates present in the room.

Attendees at the spot will be offered sufficient opportunities to ‘meet and greet’, to join in excursions and to get in touch with our sponsors. So, when the situation allows, we will make sure that your trip to Friesland will become memorable!

Theme and Program

We stick with the theme and program of ICAR-Interbull 2020. The conference is dedicated to circular farming and its impact on animal genetics, recording of data and cattle / herd management.

The conference will start with an Interbull Open Meeting on Monday. Then from Tuesday till Thursday there will be very interesting ICAR sessions on the impact of circular farming on breeding and breeding goals, recent developments in animal identification, data analytics, new opportunities through milk analysis, new developments in milk recording, possible applications of blockchain in recording activities, on goat and sheep performance recording and on sampling and recording devices. The ICAR General Assembly and the joint ICAR-Interbull Plenary Meeting on circular farming are scheduled for Wednesday 29 April. All ICAR sessions will be topped off with a Plenary Wrap Up. On Friday we will have the second part of the Interbull Open Meeting. More details about the program are here.

We expect participants from all over the world. This conference is of special interest for all who are involved in cattle breeding, animal recording and sensor technology, both in research and in management positions.

Meetings of ICAR Board / SubCommittees / Working Groups/ Task Forces

It is anticipated that these meetings will be scheduled and held by these groups themselves in the weeks ahead of the Conference with use of the ICAR-Interbull 2021 on line platform.

Registration

Registration for the conference will be open from January 6, 2021.

Call for Abstracts

ICAR-Interbull 2021 will have a number of very interesting sessions. Information on the ICAR sessions is here. Information about the submission of abstracts for the Interbull Open Meetings will follow later.

If you plan to participate in ICAR-Interbull 2021 and to report any developments related to one of the sessions, you are cordially invited to submit an abstract through here.

You can submit your abstract for the ICAR sessions from now till January 15, 2021.

Please be aware that upon acceptance of your abstract, you are expected to provide a video recording of your presentation and a 2 to 3 minute pitch recording before April 14, 2021.

Sponsors

Sponsors of the ICAR 2020 Conference in Leeuwarden will be offered attractive possibilities to present their company, products or insights on specific topics. You will be contacted on this by Jos Buiting.

New Sponsors are welcome of course and can contact jos.buiting@crv4all.com for options.

We look forward to see you in Leeuwarden or to meet you virtually at ICAR-Interbull 2021!.

Kind regards,

The Local Organisation Committee

Jos Buiting, Bert van ‘t Land, Gerben de Jong, Esther Dijkema and Hans Wilmink (CRV), Kees de Koning (Dairy Campus Wageningen University) and Harrie van den Bijgaart (Qlip)