The issue of what exactly is an Irish bull has been causing some difficulty between Irish beef farmers, the Department of Agriculture and Food and the beef barons.
The virility issue has come to a head at meat plants around the country since the introduction of mechanical grading machines at the State's beef factories a fortnight ago.
While all sides have accepted that the machines are doing a very good job on grading the cattle, all agree that they are frankly useless at determining the vital statistics which make the difference between a bull and a steer.
A steer is, of course, a bull which has been castrated and most of the male beef produced in Ireland comes from these castrated cattle.
However, earlier this year, farmers discovered that that if they applied for an EU bull premium when their male animal was born, rather than a steer premium, the premium at 10 months was much higher.
But the downside of this exercise was that factories pay less for bull beef than beef from steers, which are also known as bullocks.
As a result, Irish bulls were allowed to remain just that until the economic argument for retaining their virility was lost and then they were castrated.
But this act brought an added complication because the animal's passport, issued at its birth, describe these animals as bulls rather than bullocks or steers.
Arguments and disagreements over the "bull or steer" status of animals marred the first week of the operation of the mechanical grading machines which replaced agricultural officers at beef slaughtering plants.
Now the farm organisations have argued that the categorisation of a steer or bull must take place in the lairage (pens outside the factory) when, as an Irish Farmers' Association statement said, the animal is fully intact.
Both it and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association have argued that no grading machine or passport should be used to determine the status of an animal as a bull or a steer.
"It will take a visual inspection when the animal is alive to determine this issue," said Mr Pat O'Rourke, president of the ICMSA yesterday.
The Department of Agriculture and Food confirmed that it had been drawn into the argument over the grading of bulls and had agreed that not documentary but visual evidence should determine the outcome of the dispute.