There have been further calls for farmers to reject the LIC contract.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal at the Positive Conference on Wednesday, dairy farmer and conference organiser Michael Murphy appealed to the board of LIC to review the most recent decision to initiate contracts with individual Irish farmers for bull semen.

Murphy said: “I feel the proposed new arrangements that have been written about recently will not do the Irish dairy industry or the LIC company any good. I have respectfully asked the board of LIC to review their decision and hopefully some compromise arrangement can be reached.”

Murphy, who has farming interests in New Zealand, the US and Ireland has used a lot of New Zealand bred sires in the past and is a strong advocate that Irish farmers should have access to high fertility and high milk solids genetics from right across the world. He is also a firm believer in the power of a large database owned by Irish farmers, allowing access to independent results on sires from across the world.