Mr. Bill Callanan:

On emergency measures and AI, I am not sure how it contributes to the overall situation, from a breeding perspective. Methane is clearly one of the big issues for agriculture and is a big proportion of our overall profile. The EU methane strategy for agriculture identifies three opportunities: feeding, including feed additives; breeding strategies; and anaerobic digestion. Within breeding, what are we trying to do is, basically, breed an animal that has greater longevity and better delivery of economic traits such as milk production, milk solids, etc. The evidence is irrefutable that there is quite a substantial difference between animals of superior breeding versus those of lower breeding when it comes to environmental efficiency. To put some numbers on that, the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation has the largest data processor in Ireland and brings together all the data points relating to animals' performance and translates that into an economic breeding index that is understandable for farmers. That is on the dairy side and on the beef side with the use of stars. How does one make that simple?

There is a €50 identified difference between high and low breeding values, which translates into approximately €100 of economic benefit. In simple terms, a better bred animal is generally a smaller cow. It has greater longevity, which is about living longer with very good production profile. AI is the greatest opportunity for success in this area.