Who drives farming efficiency?

By Matt Dempsey

In our Sheep Feature section we report on a sheep industry that has seen its ewe flock fall by 22% over the last 10 years, but its national lambing percentage has risen by 20%. At the same time average carcase weights of each lamb has also risen - by almost 30% - and this in an environment with little assistance at lambing time. The net result from 20% less sheep is more lamb and more output per labour unit and more output per ewe.

The recent story of the New Zealand sheep industry is one of significant and real progress. Where is the valid Irish comparison? There is little point in blaming the ewe premium system. There may be some point in blaming the extensification rules that kept sheep off many of the more progressive cattle farms. These rules are now being consigned to history.

But we need to heed other lessons.

DNA technology is not allowing us in Ireland to identify rams that pass on genetic resistance to foot rot - it is elsewhere. Genetic sites to confer resistance to worms or other parasites are being identified, yet the impact of such technologies on Irish sheep production is minimal.

The focus on New Zealand for many of Ireland's pastoral lessons may be repetitive but the similarities are too great to be ignored, especially the grass base and the high cost of labour relative to the sale value of the farm product. These cost relationships have placed a premium on good fencing and labour-saving techniques at both lambing and important flock handling times of the year. They have also driven national research programmes along clearly laid-out priorities.

The results can be seen in increased performance in all the main measurable areas. The new EU decoupling regime that is now starting must serve to re-focus our technical research base.

In too many areas real progress has, over the last decade, been close to zero. We are spending real money on research in this country.

In its comparatively new director of research - Dr Seamus Crosse - Teagasc has an able and experienced operator. He should consider convening a research forum, isolating the key national priorities in each area and putting in the measurement systems necessary to deliver results.

Technical production research has slipped from focus in favour of a hazier environmental hue. By all means let us have an environmental awareness in our farming but the key national aims for our farming industry are relatively easy to identify. Now is the time to stand back and lay out a clear way forward for the next decade of likely policy stability.