Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The two examples shown in Figure 2 are not necessarily the highest weighing animals. It depends on what one is marketing but it can, on the total herd, yield more fertile calving and shorter intervals. A lower individual weight but a higher aggregate weight is more profitable and one must bear in mind that the whole process is driven by profit. That is the point that was being made.

On another point raised by Deputy Fitzmaurice, if a four-star or five-star animal is sold in a mart and subsequently genotyped at below the original designation, will the animal qualify because it was designated four or five-star when it was purchased and introduced to the herd?