Low adoption rates stymie progress

The article referred to the potential of sexed semen technology to transform our national calf-breeding profile. However, I did not expect it would take quite so long to become a widely used breeding tool. We must hope that the next stage of widespread adoption on all calf-breeding farms will not be so drawn out. In fairness, sexed semen back in 2000 was expensive, restricted to a few sires considered suitable, and was less than acceptable in terms of conception rates. We now have an Irish semen-sexing facility, there is a wide range of sire semen available, and the added cost over traditional AI is worthwhile, especially given the benefits to individual farmers and the livestock sector, generally. When used efficiently the conception rate is almost on a par with non-sexed AI semen, and farmers tend to target their first calvers and more fertile cows. With a very accurate traceability regime in place for our livestock, it should become far easier for farmers to maximise the benefits of using sexed semen. There are still gaps to be filled. Not all our milk producers, for instance, use milk recording on a regular basis. Without that information package on yields, protein and milk solids, it is not possible to run an efficient breeding programme. Co-ops are encouraging greater take-up of recording and the requirement to reduce the use of dry-cow therapy will further nudge slow adopters on the road to recording.
In the 2000 article, I described commercial sexed semen as having the potential to have the same transformative impact on livestock breeding as AI itself had many decades ago. Likewise, I would now suggest that the widespread adoption of genotyping and individual DNA sampling and analysis of all our livestock should be the next transformative breakthrough in cattle breeding. ‘Follow the science’, as the late Padraig Walshe often said. In this instance, food producers never needed scientific progress and novel technologies more than we do today as we face unrelenting pressures to reduce our environmental impact while, at the same time, at least maintaining output. I would add in the research on the potential of novel clovers and associated advances in soil science, which we feature in this Irish Farmers Monthly issue, as having the potential to further enable us to protect and improve our livestock grazing model.
Perhaps the biggest challenge is not the emergence of relevant technologies. That is likely to accelerate as AI drives progress. What is important is that food producers are willing to adopt the necessary changes required to protect our licence to produce. It is easy to pat ourselves on the back for the progress we have made. The reality, however, is that we are still not at optimum grass production and utilisation thresholds. Ten tonnes of grass dry matter per hectare is well achievable on most of our grassland. We are not close to that figure, even on many milk production farms. Grass productivity on the majority of our dry stock farms is well short of that 10-tonne target. We acknowledge that grass is our only competitive advantage. It is the most cost-efficient feed for producing either milk or meat and there is a straightforward blueprint in place based on grass varieties, soil fertility and management practices to deliver increased productivity. We replace that productivity with supports and schemes that deliver income but which often distract from efforts to use our land more efficiently.