The Irish Cattle and Sheep Association (ICSA) has met with Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed to insist that EU protected geographical indication (PGI) status be sought for suckler beef.

“The ICSA does not support artificial incentives to encourage farmers to keep more suckler cows. Instead, we need to focus on paying better direct payments to more extensive systems of farming because we have seen time and time again that scarcity is far better than traceability or sustainability for farmers,” ICSA president Patrick Kent said.

Scarcity is far better than traceability or sustainability

Kent also dismissed the idea of obtaining a PGI status for the entire national kill, which would include dairy beef.

He added that farmers should not be incentivised to produce more animals. He said that it had been proven that “scarcity is far better than traceability or sustainability for farmers.”

Some farmers will see this as a counter to the argument made by the IFA of the need for a €200/cow suckler payment, which has been labelled as a coupled payment by Minister Creed, which he says he wants to avoid.

On the issue of the next Common Agricultural Policy, the ICSA president said that payments should be weighted in favour of “less intensive and low income cattle, sheep and tillage farmers need better payments.”

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