The Irish Farmers Journal understands that the New Zealand breeding company Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) will ask farmers to sign new legal contracts this spring restricting potential usage of LIC-bred stock.

The contract would preclude farmers selling LIC-bred animals to other AI companies for the purposes of producing semen for a period of five years.

The development could threaten the future of the Irish national breeding programme operated by ICBF.

It is understood that at the time of semen purchase dairy farmers will be asked to sign a legal document and if they do not they would not be allowed purchase LIC semen. It will not be necessary to sign the legal contract each year.

A spokesperson for LIC said: “Shareholders of LIC are reluctant to let the best LIC genetics into the hands of competitors, especially since the relaxation of EU rules now allows the best LIC sires become available in Ireland, and new short gestation sires are also now available.”

The move is a clear signal that LIC wants to hold on to its intellectual property and the investment it has made in breeding in New Zealand and not let other companies piggy back on New Zealand genetics.

This development comes following a long period where New Zealand-bred semen has been used on some of the best Irish cows to breed top AI bulls. Typically, these young bulls have been purchased by Irish AI companies and now these LIC-bred sires rank at the top of the AI list sold by companies other than LIC as top genomic young sires.

There is precedent to this move as LIC enforced strict terms and conditions on the sales in Australia.

Consequences

The consequences of such a move by LIC could threaten the viability of a national breeding programme if restrictions limited the sale of certain stock.

It could also undermine the EBI in future years should LIC move to contract mate Irish herds and develop their own index.

Similarly, the move could also trigger other breeding companies operating in Ireland to restrict the future use and sale of stock bred on Irish farms.