DEAR EDITOR
In Aidan Brennan’s article in the Irish Farmers Journal dated 18 July, he uses a case study of two farmers to make a comparison which I would like to comment on.
We are told farmer John is focused on solids and farmer Tom is focused on yield, but for the comparison, they are both given the same yield of 10,000 litres.
This produces an outcome that is heavily biased in favour of the farmer focused on solids.
If the writer had given the farmer focused on yield even a modest yield increase of say 20%, ie 12,000 litres, the results would look much different and more interesting, although they would not fit as neatly with the writer’s narrative.
Mr Brennan also commented that there are too many bulls with high volume being promoted by AI companies and that those companies should be ashamed of themselves for “luring” farmers into using them.
I assume that AI companies offer a wide choice of bulls because they feel there is a demand for this from their customers.
The idea that dairy farmers should not be given the choice to pick bulls that they feel are best suited to their own farms is worrying to say the least.
In dairy farming, as in most things, one size does not fit all.
SHARING OPTIONS