Mr. Sean Coughlan:

I have been at various meetings, I have been taking calls from farmers and I am very well aware of what is happening. One of the challenges I mentioned earlier is communication. There are genuine cases out there, but there is a lot of fearmongering out there as well. I genuinely believe that because I have talked to farmers who rang me personally with serious problems. I look at their herd and explain what is going on. Many of the farmers, when they were ringing, did not even know what changes had happened. Many of the farmers who are worried about the indices are not even in SCEP. I am not diminishing for a second that there is a lot of concern, especially among some pedigree breeders. In fairness, some of the pedigree breeders have bulls that have dropped on stars. First, from a SCEP point of view, it is taking only 40% of the bulls. Second, in terms of eligibility for SCEP, the animal has to be 4 stars or 5 stars within or across breed. Only 4.5% of the bulls that were 4 stars or 5 stars within or across breed are no longer 4 stars or 5 stars within or across breed.