Dr. Paul Crosson:

It goes back to the formulation of the index and the various components within that. Clearly the cow live within the replacement index has a big impact on the overall index value. If we look at the impact on the cow side, since the previous analysis in 2015, which was the last time we ran this, cow costs have increased by 41%. That is the current analysis. The cost of carrying the cow has gone from approximately €1,100 to €1,550. This is actual farm data on what it is costing to carry a cow. We put those values into the economic model. The cost of the cow, in other words, the cost traits, are not just the cost of feeding the cow but also the fertility traits. Fertility is directly related to feed costs in the sense that a cow that is still in the shed in April and should have calved in March, depending on the part of the country, is still on a silage diet and is costing twice as much as grass silage for the cow that goes outside because it has calved earlier. Therefore, the fertility aspect is really important. Equally important is the output element of it. Where output is constrained because of long-calving intervals, where we have 90-day calving intervals, the average output per year is lower. Both of those are directly impacted by fertility but feed costs have been a really big driver of the changes in the economic model.