Technical progress in farming is usually slow, incremental and cumulative. In other words, success builds on success and the gains are permanent unless there is a catastrophic event such as a virulent new disease or a weather disaster.

The common crucial factor is that there is measurement so that progress can be accurately assessed, and in the case of animal breeding that higher performing animals can be used for breeding rather than ones that reduce overall productivity.

The progress made in dairy breeding and cow productivity since the foundation of the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) has been remarkable.

Milk Production

The simplest demonstration of this genetic progress is that the 5 billion litres of milk produced from the national dairy herd in 1984 - the year quotas were introduced - has grown to almost 9 billion litres with approximately the same number of cows, while fat and protein levels have also increased.

The Economic Breeding Index (EBI) has been widely applied within the dairy sector. The same does not apply on the beef side.

While a commercial beef value index has been developed to accurately predict the performance of beef-bred progeny from the dairy herd, the average productivity of these animals has been declining.

And while the technical capacity exists to genotype each calf and to predict its growth rate and ultimately, its profitability, such information is not available to the buyer and finisher of these cattle. This is a fundamental weakness in the Irish beef industry.

The exclusive emphasis on short gestation and ease of calving, while ignoring desirable beef traits, is making a potentially viable sector increasingly unprofitable.

We may say that live exports will continue to underpin dairy calf prices but the trend is against this easy assumption, and dairy processors will increasingly want evidence of the destination of bull calves.

The capacity exists to very significantly increase profitability in this low margin sector. At the Irish Farmers Journal Open Day on the dairy calf-to-beef system in Cashel on Tuesday, these differences in genetic potential were vividly demonstrated. The animals on the farm were picked on the basis of their high quality genes and it showed.

In the meantime we already have the Euro-Star system for beef sires. With a difference of up to €200 in returns between a one star and five stars, it would seem obvious that buyers would at least have this information fully available.