Mr. Brendan Crosse:

It is New Zealand's research. Even in Ireland, however, sheep are low-emitting animals. They are very efficient. To compare a sheep produced for meat with a dairy sheep, the sheep is producing the milk anyway. All we are asking of the sheep, instead of producing milk for 80 days to rear its lamb, is to take the lamb off a little earlier and continue milking for a further 120 days. The milking season is generally approximately 200 days. The sheep is on the ground idle. When it is producing milk, it involves higher processing but, as New Zealand proves, it does not lead to drastic growth in its emitting profile, which makes it very attractive in Ireland. As we stated, the opportunity will then be not only those sheep producing a little more but producing three times more output. We could pull back on ewe numbers and have a much more sustainable system.