The farmer-owner of one of the UK’s smaller genetics companies has devised a plan to share the pain of milk price cuts with dairy farmers by reducing semen prices while maintaining high merit among sires on offer.

At Sterling Sires and Sterling Bulls Online, Paul Westaway has allocated three progeny-proven and three genomic sires – all selected for broad spectrum use based on positive production and strong functional type – to the scheme.

He says that, as a farmer himself, he understands the pressures faced by milk producers right now. “We know what you’re going through and want to do what we can to help,” he says. “Clearly, dairy farmers cannot afford to compromise on the quality of sires they use, so we’ve developed this programme to offer high merit at much reduced cost.”

Farmers can pick and choose which of the six sires they require in any combination, and orders of 50 straws or more in total are priced at less than £10 per straw. Depending on the mix of bulls selected, discounts of more than 30% off the normal price are the result.