19th January 2002

The Scrapie Circus rolls on

By John Shirley

Following the row where the Department of Agriculture reneged on details of compensation agreed with the IFA for flocks depopulated because of Scrapie, the time has now come to slaughter out these flocks.

Not surprisingly controversy continues to this ill thought-out cull.

The latest is the scales debacle.

The sheep line at Slaney Foods at Clohamon, Co Wexford is the venue for the cull.

The cull began pre-Christmas with ewes recently lambed and those on the point of lambing being first for the chop.

The Department insisted on weighing the sheep pre slaughter. First it was all sheep. Now adult ewes are not weighed.

Ewe lambs/hoggets over 55 kg are taken in as replacements ewes and qualify for compensation at about €165 (£130) a head. Those under 55 kg will collect less than €114 (£90) but need to be above 37 kg to qualify for compensation for the 2 to 3 years that the flockowner has to stay out of sheep.

It has now transpired that the digital read out scales being used by the Department in Slaney was under-weighing the lambs. It was underweighing because the scales was jamming against a hurdle. But even when standing free it was found to be out by up to 2.5 kg a head according to the IFA. The IFA threatened to bring in the Weights and Measures Inspectorate.

Then one of the farmers whose sheep were being culled agreed to bring in his scales and this seemed to work OK. The cull is proceeding at a leisurely 500 head a day. (about one fifth of the normal daily throughput on the Slaney line.)

While the row over the faulty scales was undesirable it can be easily fixed and forgotten about.

It is the Scrapie cull itself that is the real crime against sheep farmers.

As the flocks are slaughtered they are Scrapie tested using the Enfer test. The information coming back to flockowners is that the sheep are negative. The cull is not necessary. This exercise;

• which is causing enormous trauma to farmers (a former sheep farmer of the year is among those earmarked for the cull),
• which will leave sheep plants ever shorter in supplies,
• which is scientifically unjustified,
• which is costing the taxpayer a fortune,is taking out clean sheep.

Within the Department of Agriculture there is increasing unease about the rash decision on the Scrapie cull. There is no sign that any other country is being panicked into a similar move. Talks are shortly to take place with farm organisations to find a better way of handling the Scrapie threat.

The native lowland sheep of Galway and Roscommon

This is the title of a recently published book written by former UCD professor Leo Curran, now an active member of the Irish Genetics Resources Survival Trust.

The Galways and Roscommons were the nearest we had to indigenous Irish sheep breeds. They were noted for their large size, their fine white wool and their docility which kept them from breaking from the low walled fields of the counties of the same name.

The 80-page booklet tells how the breeding of Roscommon sheep can be traced back to the 1840s. The breed was of substance and travelled to Argentina along with the human emigrants who also travelled to that part of the world 100 years ago.

The Galways came into prominence in the 1920's when a Society was established and the larger Roscommon sheep gave way to the longer woolled Galway. Both breeds got official support over the 20th century, details of these are given in the book.

However first the Roscommon and more recently the Galway didn't match the fashions of the meat trade and went into decline. The issue facing the Galway breed is now one of survival, at least the survival of the registered sheep.

In 1999 the Galway sheep society was reformed into a limited company "the Galway sheep breeders association Ltd". In 1990/2000 850 females were bred. This declined to 550 ewes a year later, maybe because of the increased registration costs. However last September's showsale went well and there are now breeders in the UK.

With conservationists getting interested in the breed this should help its future.

Copies of the book can be obtained at E10 each from the author, Leo Curran, who lives in Tara, Co Meath or from Association assistant secretary Tom Murphy.

National envelope top-up for the lowlands?

Is there a politician, an administrator, or even a farm leader out there willing to do the right thing with the new national envelope section of the Ewe Premium?

Under the deal agreed pre-Christmas, Irish farmers (like their European colleagues), will receive a fixed ewe premium of €21 (£16.54) per ewe. Flockowners in Disadvantaged Areas will receive a supplementary €7 (£5.51) per ewe Rural World Premium.

In addition, each country will receive a national envelope top-up which equates to about €1 per ewe in the national ewe premium quota.

Ireland's National Envelope is €4.875 million (£3.82m).

When announcing the pre-Christmas deal Minister Joe Walsh referred to the National Envelope as a top-up of €1.22 per head across all ewes of the country.

But the Minister has the discretion of how the National Envelope cash is spent.

For instance he could try to redress the imbalances of the current regime and concentrate the envelope on a deprived minority.

I refer to the lowland sheep farmers.

Concentrating the national envelope on this sector could deliver a top-up of about €4.8 per ewe to the ewe premium.

The moral and economic justification for loading the National Envelope cash onto the lowland flock includes;

• Disadvantaged Area Flockowners are getting the €7 per ewe Rural World Premium. Lowland flocks are excluded.
• Disadvantaged Area Flockowners also get the Area-Based Premium Scheme which replaced Headage. Lowland flocks are excluded.
• The Ewe Premium is intended to compensate for low lamb prices. Lowland flocks suffer most from low lamb prices.
• Disadvantaged Area farmers need the lowland flocks to stay in business in order to have outlets for breeding ewes and even store lambs.
• Meat exporters, marts, and general suppliers certainly need the lowland sheep farmers to stay in business.

The toll of the unfair ewe premium on the lowland flocks is seen on the ground. It is not coincidence that the lowest farm household incomes in the country in recent years have been recorded in the South East where farming has a high level of lowland sheep.

Based on this it is no surprise that the exodus from sheep has been greatest in the lowlands. Already the national flock is down by 1 million ewes. Does anybody want to stop this rot?