Pedigree cattle breeding an option for strapped investors

PEDIGREE cattle breeding could provide a new outlet for investors worried about the turbulence in the world financial markets.

Irish business leaders such as Dr Tony O’Reilly and Michael O’Leary have developed award-winning beef herds in recent years. Agribusiness chiefs such as Jerry Henchy, Dairygold, are also into breeding and showing quality livestock.

But delegates to the World Holstein Conference at Killarney and Millstreet were told cattle breeding needs to be made attractive to investors, who are required in all industries.

Dr Doreen Corridan, a board member of the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF), said the show ring, with its glamour, buzz and competitive edge, will help to attract investors.

“They in turn will drive forward the wheels of science and the acquisition of genetics,” she said.

Dr Corridan warned, however, that over-simplification of cattle breeding, believing it to be a process of addition and subtraction, is of grave concern.

“Breeding high indexed cattle is a flawed objective.

“The objective is the production of profitable cattle and the continuous development of a meaningful index system that will allow us to do so,” she said.

Dr Corridan said Ireland is the best place in the world to breed cattle, but this did not happen by accident.

It results from the efforts of progressive herd owners and breeders, and the work done by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Moorepark Dairy Research Centre, the Irish Holstein Friesian Association (IHFA) and the ICBF, she said.

The world conference show featuring more than 300 cattle, representing the cream of the Holstein Friesian and Jersey breeds in Ireland, got under way at Green Glens in Millstreet yesterday afternoon and will continue today.

Dr Corridan said all industries need a show case, outlining the importance of such events in an era when the majority of consumers of dairy products in Ireland are at least one generation removed from agriculture.

Noting this represents a new departure for Irish agriculture, she said national and local shows give consumers a chance to understand and identify with the farmer, the producer of the food consumed at their breakfast table each morning.