Suckler farmers could be paid to cull cows, an interim report from the Food Vision beef and sheep group has proposed.

A voluntary scheme, which would pay suckler farmers to destock, is among a raft of measures outlined.

Under the destocking proposals, two options are available to beef farmers.

They can cull suckler cows and keep the land destocked of breeding cattle for the scheme’s duration.

Another option would see farmers paid to cull a specified number of cows and remain at this lower number until the scheme concludes.

No agreement has been reached on the payment rates that would accompany this suckler cull.

The report was submitted to the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue this week. Farm organisations have not signed off on the proposed measures.

A final report is due to be published at the end of November.

Stakeholders are understood to be concerned that the complete destocking of suckler cows from farms could exacerbate land abandonment concerns, particularly on marginal land.

Key challenges identified to implementing the scheme include securing sufficient funds to incentivise farmers to cull suckler herds and ensuring existing CAP schemes would not be impacted by the proposal.

Details on the financial impact of the proposed measures on farmers, as well as expected uptake and emissions potential, are being put together by State agencies participating in the group, which include Teagasc, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the ICBF.

For the scheme to reduce emissions, participating farmers would not be allowed to transfer land to another farmer who calves suckler cows.

The conditions of any cull scheme should prevent this land from being “recirculated” within the sector, the report states.

The report suggests that the scheme could be off the ground by 2025

Further development and evaluation of the proposed cull will be carried out “within a relatively short timeframe”, along with all other 18 measures included in the document.

The report suggests that the scheme could be off the ground by 2025.

The cull recommendation comes only one week after Minister McConalogue was advised to introduce a dairy cow reduction and exit scheme by the Food Vision dairy group.

Other measures

Other actions proposed include replacing 90% of CAN with protected urea by the end of 2025. It also proposes a 20% reduction in chemical nitrogen usage by 2025, and a 30% cut by 2030. The report suggests that reducing the average slaughter age of cattle by 2.7 months should be considered.

Farmers should not achieve this goal by feeding more meal but by improving animal genetics and upping the quality of grass and forage offered to cattle, the group said.

Another measure under consideration would see that every beef farmer has incorporated clover or established multispecies swards across 20% of their farm by the end of 2025.

The group is looking at increasing the proportion of organic beef farmers and breeding lower-emitting animals.

The group was established by Minister McConalogue this June and tasked with setting out the pathway for emissions reduction in the beef sector.

The farmer organisations participating in the group are the IFA, ICSA, INHFA, ICMSA and Macra.