asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries the number of inseminators employed in the State on (a) 1st June, 1973, (b) 1st June, 1974, and (c) 1st June, 1975.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Cattle Insemination.
27.
The numbers of inseminators employed on the 1st June in each of the years 1973, 1974 and 1975 were 549, 521 and 479 respectively.
28.
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries the number of cattle inseminated in this country in the first six months of (a) 1973, (b) 1974 and (c) 1975.
Inseminations in the periods January/June, 1973, 1974 and 1975 were 770, 960, 624, 185 and 619, 123 respectively. The 1975 figures are provisional.
29.
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if he will give details of the fall-off in the use of artificial insemination for cattle showing the number of inseminations carried out in each of the past five years; the reasons for this fall-off; and the steps he proposes to take to correct the situation.
The numbers of cattle inseminated in each of the past five years were as follows:
1970, 1,033,054; 1971, 1,023,872; 1972, 1,188,057; 1973, 1,194,190 and 1974, 987,009.
The decline in AI use in 1974 was attributed at the time to:
1. Cows delayed coming into heat because of poor condition arising from feed supply difficulties;
2. Farmers deferring putting cows in calf because of low calf prices and to see whether trade would improve.
From preliminary returns for the first six months of this year it appears that the decline in AI use is being arrested. As I indicated in reply to a question earlier this year, trends disclosed by artificial insemination figures are kept under constant review.
The Minister would need to have a talk with the Secretary of his Department.
The Minister is responsible for his Department.
Was the Minister serious when he told the House that the reason for the drop in insemination last year was the failure of the cows to come in heat? What kind of nonsense is that? Surely it is as plain as a pikestaff that it did not pay farmers to produce calves?
I said that was the main reason. This was not peculiar to Ireland and the Deputy knows that only too well.
The morals of the cows are rising.