Mr. Martin Ryan:

No more than the farmer, whether he decides to go in here or not, he is entitled to make his decision. This is an optional programme that will suit certain people for different reasons, and it is a small percentage of the total market.

Mr. O'Dowd has covered some of the areas, but the important piece was to do with quality and breed. That is applicable to all of the cattle that qualify on the weight basis during that two-year period rather than the percentages that are there today.

There is no desire or approach around looking at other millers or anything else like that. We are trying to find a model that will help the value of a dairy calf and help a beef producer get a return on rearing them. We see that as quite a challenge today. We are trying to bring some certainty and clarity to that. It is for a small percentage of the cattle population. Depending on how it goes, others may follow suit and others may have other initiatives around this.

A number of the other issues were covered a few times. There was a question about the age of the calf. There is no limit regarding what point a calf can move at. It was one movement at any time in its life. If a dairy farmer normally keeps his calves for nine months, a year or a year and a half and another farmer finishes it from there, that is not an issue. There is no restriction around that.

On the price of the calf, we have no involvement in setting the price. It is between the farmers. It is always a challenge to make sure the market has a fair price. We reckon the fairest way of handling that is through the farmers. Just as we will send all members of the club the weekly ROI price quoted, what we will do is also send them the prices of calves from the marts to give them an indication of where the price is at.

That covers most of the key points.