DEAR EDITOR

I want to appeal to the Irish AI bodies to carefully consider the decision to control the intellectual property or, more accurately, the breeding independence of the national herd.

Recently, Matt Dempsey gave the excellent example of the racehorse Frankel and breeding rights ownership in the horse industry. Aidan Brennan is correct when he states that few dairy farmers will ever sell a bull to AI and that this decision will slow down genetic progress.

The strength of Ireland''s breeding programme has delivered great progress for dairy farmers.

Few may sell a bull to AI, but that hides the reality that we currently have 1.5m potential bull mothers and bull mothers that deliver excellent bulls without any pampering or special treatment. Leave what is not broken alone!

Farmer board members should reconsider. When the ICBF was established, Brian Wickham was adamant that the information generated was the property of the farmers that generated it. This was despite strong opinions to the contrary. It was right then, it still is!