Four of the largest operators in Ireland’s bovine artificial insemination (AI) sector have confirmed that they intend to introduce intellectual property (IP) rights on their high genetic merit bulls and semen.
The four companies said the move is in a bid to “safeguard the Irish genetics industry and retain control of the industry in Irish farmers’ hands”.
The four operators – Dovea Genetics, Eurogene, Munster Bovine, and Progressive Genetics, who together represent a substantial portion of the Irish AI sector – issued a joint statement today (Wednesday, February 5) to confirm the move.
The statement said the companies’ intentions are to:
- Maintain and grow the position that Irish genetics has gained as a “global leader” in cattle breeding;
- Safeguard the investments made in Irish breeding programmes both domestically and in exported genetics;
- Preserve collaborative industry infrastructure, where all stakeholders “continue to work to the benefit of farmers”.
The introduction of IP rights on elite Irish bovine genetics is in line with international best practice, the statement said.
Over the last decade, almost all of the large international AI companies have introduced IP protections on their genetics.
However, Irish genetics are currently highly accessible to large international players who could potentially gain control of Irish genetics by buying progeny from Irish bulls.
“We need to get ahead of the risk and stop our top genetics from emigrating to global commercial firms where they could become inaccessible to Irish farmers,” the four companies said.
The introduction of IP rights on some of the high genetic merit bulls and semen is described as a preventative measure which would restrict larger international players from accessing Irish genetics.
It will not affect any farmer’s commercial sales, including farm-to-farm sales, mart sales, factory sales, or the sale of natural service stock bulls, the statement said.
The move only relates to the sale of elite animals to other AI companies, and seeks to protect Ireland’s domestic elite bulls from being put into stud internationally and causing a “genetic drain” from the Irish industry, the four operators said.
They added that they are proposing to establish a cross-licencing arrangement for domestic AI organisations to ensure that the industry retains genetic diversity, genetic gain, and competition for bulls within the domestic market.
The cross-licencing agreement will allow the sale of IP-identified bulls from farm to any participating company, effectively retaining competition between Irish AI companies for elite bull calf sales and allowing the highest bidder to prevail on the sale of such bulls.