DEAR SIR: With regard to the Save Our Sucklers campaign, I think it really begs the question why? As I know to my own detriment being a suckler farmer for the last 15 years, the industry is in a terminal downward spiral.

I have invested heavily in my farm, keeping facilities and stock of the highest standards, doing everything to best industry standards, acting on best advice from Teagasc and your own publications, to no avail.

For the last number of years I have had to sell off breeding stock to keep my farm and family home above water, which has decimated my herd from 70-plus high-quality continental suckler cows to less than 30 at the moment.

I am now buying west of Ireland weanlings for less than I can produce them myself, something which I know is not sustainable as the people producing these cannot stay in business for much longer and even at that they are leaving me little or no margin.

Another consideration is the environmental impact suckler cows have. They are one of the least efficient meat-producing animals while expelling copious amounts of harmful gases.

Therefore, I would call on the powers that be to instead of saving our sucklers, give an incentive to reduce or abandon suckler farming altogether, for as far as I can see this is the only way to remove power from the factories and restore a workable system where the primary producers receive their just share for producing the highest quality beef in the world.