Paula Hynes: Pausing IP on elite Irish genetics would be like driving with the handbrake on
Our February milk production was high and thankfully our processor maintained base price for February supplies, and rightly so as butter and WMP are still rising in price weekly on the European dairy market.
The recent spell of fine weather has allowed us stay well ahead on the workload and all our lower land has also now been spread with fertiliser and some of it has also been spread with slurry, so the whole farm is primed for growth.
The first paddocks grazed in the springtime have grass covers of 1,200kgs/dm. We are in no rush to start the second rotation but what we will most likely do is alternate grazings daily between first and second rotation to allow the cows to transition onto the lush grass.
Tillage farmers also seem to be well ahead on their spring workload, with a lot of spring barley now set. As I am writing this, there is rain forecast for the next two days, but the forecast looks to be improving again — a little rain is welcome now to wash in some slurry.
Cows are on cruise control at the moment, comfortably averaging 2kgs/ms and somatic cell count is continuously under 100k and dropping down to 79k.
Our February milk production was high and thankfully our processor maintained base price for February supplies, and rightly so as butter and WMP are still rising in price weekly on the European dairy market.
We completed our first milk recording of the year on St Patrick's Day — an early milk recording is crucial to identify any problem and it is also useful information to have as we make a solid plan for the main breeding season.
We will be using sexed semen on select cows again this year as it seems to be working well for us and we will definitely be using beef semen again from the beginning of breeding.
Looking through our milk recording report, I noticed our herd SCC was three times higher for our first recording in 2024, so dry cow therapy seems to have been very successful over the winter.
It’s amazing how fast the year progresses; it seems like only last week we were preparing for calving season and now we are getting ready to put them all back in calf again.
What amazed me even more was seeing the ICMSA call for a pause on the IP protection of elite Irish genetics to allow further time for discussion on the matter.
The ICMSA also has concerns over ownership of offspring from IP-protected bulls, and wants an acceptable level of competition within the Irish breeding industry.
The reality is Irish AI companies should have moved towards IP-protection five years ago and they are already marketing IP-protected sires for international breeding companies — any further delay would simply leave the Irish breeding industry exposed on the international scene, as Irish bulls are already marketed globally.
The background of IP protection is that the four main AI companies — Munster Bovine, Progressive Genetics, Dovea and Eurogene — are to place an IP on their most elite sires, but not all sires, so if farmers don’t want to use IP-protected genetics, they don’t have to.
The IP is valid for two generations but it doesn’t affect the farmers' ability to sell the offspring. The IP comes into play if another AI company wished to use the offspring — then they would have to enter into discussions with the company that holds the IP.
I have no doubt if it is in the best interests of national breeding programme, then both companies will come to an agreement and it is already in the best interests of the four AI companies to ensure the genetic pool remains as diverse as possible.
Our job as farmers is to breed great cows to drive our farms forward, and the only way to maximise genetic gain is to use elite sires. On the rare occasion that an elite bull calf is born, the chances are the four companies involved in IP-protection will be the ones interested in the bull calf anyway — the beef farmer or calf exporter won’t be too concerned as to whether a bull calf is sired by an IP-protected bull.
With increased use of sexed semen and beef semen, genetic gain will start to slow as fewer bull calves are being born. AI companies are going to have to give farmers better incentives to mate elite cows to conventional semen and potentially breed an AI bull.
It costs farmers and AI companies a lot of money to get bulls to stud and many never even make the catalogues. The industry also requires massive investment over the next decade to ensure we keep pace with how breeding dairy cows evolve — before we know it, we will be using more embryos on farm than AI, and even ordering tailor made embryos specific to the traits we require on farm. It may seem a little far-fetched, but this is already happening in other parts of the world.
I think back to 10 years ago when farmers had concerns over using genomic sires — now every sire is genomically tested, our national herd is moving towards being entirely genomically tested and the ICBF announced recently that more than one million bovines have been DNA registered.
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If we as an industry are not willing to accept the need for IP-protection, we are simply driving with the hand brake on, slowing down how our breeding industry progresses and most likely the cost of elite AI straws will have to greatly increase to ensure the costs of top bulls are recouped by companies more quickly.
However if we are willing to accept the need for IP-protection like most other farmers around the world, then we have a chance to drive forward and make real progress.
Most farms are ordering semen at the moment, so if a farmer has concerns over IP-protected sires, the best thing to do is ask the sales person from the AI company and I am sure they will happily explain or answer any questions. For our farm, IP-protection simply means business as usual — we breed our best cows to the best bulls.
