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Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) president Denis Drennan has called on AI companies considering exercising intellectual property (IP) rights to offspring born from their bulls to put their plans on hold.
Drennan’s comments referenced Dovea Genetics, Eurogene, Munster Bovine and Progressive Genetics, all of which have announced plans impose terms on selling some of their bull’s progeny to other AI companies.
Further discussions and clarity are needed before the plans come into effect, the ICMSA leader stated.
“The introduction of these changes by the AI companies will allow the AI companies to exercise control over the offspring of animals fertilised with these AI companies’ straws,” Drennan said.
“Those are the facts, no-one denies that, and we think that this amounts to a very, very serious change in the full ownership of that offspring that heretofore was the absolute property of the farmer.”
The ICMSA has claimed this effectively means that the farmer “no longer has full ownership of his or her animal where an IP bull is used” and put the onus on AI companies to justify the changes.
“Having articles in agricultural media, sending email correspondence at peak calving and within weeks of the 2025 breeding season is not the optimum way of communicating with your farmer-customers,” Drennan went on.
“If the AI companies are convinced that the introduction of this IP is the correct course of action, they should press pause and suspend the introduction of IP for 2025.
“They should then ensure that farmers are fully informed of their reasoning behind the move, aware of the implications, and that farmers should actually sign up to it going forward - if that is their choice.”
He stated that farmers were justified in wondering “where this change in practice was going and whether or not this was just the first step in a journey to control Irish cattle breeding by four companies”.
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