Pop-up shops have become the buzz word of late. Sometimes they open for seasonal reasons, be it Christmas, Easter or other festive times of year – they are here today and gone tomorrow.

And it appears the pop-up mentality is creeping in to the world of artificial insemination (AI). This became apparent to me at the recent Ploughing Championships, when a farmer approached me on our stand with a problem.

He went on to explain how he was having a lot of trouble getting his cows in-calf this year and I asked him a few questions to try to get to the root of his difficulties.

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It soon became apparent to me what his problem was. His nephew trained last spring for DIY AI and, under Department of Agriculture guidelines, is allowed to carry out AI on two herds along with his own.

When I enquired further into what was going on, he explained that his nephew has 15 cows of his own and the farmer has 22. This would give him, including repeats, around 55 inseminations a year.

AI, like anything else in life, is all about practice and, to be honest, to train for DIY with that number of cows is not practical from an economic point of view, and runs the risk of letting cows slip.

Any full-time technician on the road would do more cows at peak season in a day than this man would do for the entire year.

So I pointed this out to my new friend and asked him if he could consider using a local technician instead, and this is where it got even more interesting.

He explained that there were five men on the road in his parish – one was working in a local office by day, one in a local quarry, one a fencing contractor, one worked in the local co-op, and the other one, as he put it, has been at it for years.

As I delved further into the conversation with him, it turned out the first four are doing very little AI but spoiling the work for the full-time man, who may often go several days without as much as a call.

So my advice to this man was stick with the man who has long service and knows his job.

The point I’m trying to make is, these pop-up AI men are here today and gone tomorrow and, in some cases, when the farmer leaves his regular AI man and the new kid on the block doesn’t work out, it can be very hard to go back to your old reliable. A stock bull is bought where there never was one before.

Firstly, you are running the risk of cows slipping and extending your calving interval by letting an unexperienced man AI your cows. Secondly, he may not be insured and thirdly, he will most likely have no backup should he be away for a day. Most important of all, he does not realise the responsibility he is taking on when he agrees to AI your cows.

We all know there’s no fortune to be made in suckler cows, and it is a big responsibility on an AI man to put your cows in-calf. It’s your income he is working with.

A lot of these fly-by-night operators are interfering with the livelihood of men and women who have been making a living at AI, while providing a top-quality service seven days a week with full backup.

Some whizz kid comes along who, in a lot of cases, already has a job, offering all sorts of services and at a cheaper price, but in the end is it cheaper?

Stick with what and who you know best – it will pay in the long run. The old Latin saying comes to mind, caveat emptor – let the buyer beware.