Mr. Alan Wood:

Seeing as Mr. McGoldrick brought it up, I will elaborate on it. One of the things that started the big beef data genomics programme and the replacement index was a change a year after we went into the programme in 2016. I am not exactly sure. One of the significant changes was the famous figure - food intake - at 18%. An index was not known about previously so there was nothing about food intake in all the star ratings we got prior to that. This famous figure of food intake is slating the better cattle. Why is this? It is because scientists are believed to have proved that if a cow is bigger, she eats more so if a cow is 800 kg and eats 2% of her body weight, she will eat more. This is correct if we compare like with like. If one has a Limousin cow weighing 600 kg and one weighing 800 kg, it is comparing like with like so yes, the Limousin cow weighing 800 kg will eat more.

My argument is that we cannot do that in cross-breeding. We cannot compare an 800 kg Charolais cow to a 600 kg cross suckler dairy cow because the dairy cow is designed to milk. My argument is that food intake is a vital ingredient in the index but it must work alongside another thing called food efficiency. I will explain it briefly. They must work side by side. One cannot slap in a figure of food intake without having food efficiency in it. For example, a bull being fed heavy concentrates needs 10 kg of meal. He is capable of converting 2 kg of that to his body weight. He is efficient. His intake is not huge but it is a good intake and his food efficiency is excellent. If one then compares another animal that might be coming off a dairy herd or might be a lesser bred animal, he is capable of eating 8 kg of meal. Great, he eats 2 kg less per day but he is capable of putting on 1.2 kg per day. Which is the best animal on the farm? One needs to work side by side. This is one of the significant problems with the ICBF. It is its way or no way. Unfortunately, common sense has gone.

Another point was raised about our own breed. Perhaps Mr. McKiernan or Mr. Maguire will take it up. Regarding our own breed, I came in here with an open mind. I have a very small pedigree herd - eight or ten cows. Most of my income comes from the commercial line. We use a Charolais bull. It is not about a breed. It is about a system that is not working. It is not about me or Charolais cattle. The system is not working and it is time to people to realise it, do something about it and drive the industry forward in the direction it should be going in a profitable way if the right representatives were there on the board and were there to make the decisions.