Dr. Kevin Hanrahan:

The analysis that was done for the MACC with regard to that measure primarily focused on the life cycle of the animals born from the dairy and beef cows. It looked at the animals that are not breeding animals and how we can reduce their age of slaughter. They are the vast majority of the animals processed in Irish factories. We have got about 800,000 beef cows and 1.6 million dairy cows; it is their sons and daughters that are on farms all over the country being raised for beef. They are the ones the measure is really thinking about. Cows will always be slaughtered at ages well in excess of the targets that are in the measure. That is just the nature of it.