Approximately 90 farmers attended the last in a series of regional Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) meetings in Cootehill, Co Cavan, on Tuesday, where farmers were briefed on climate change policy, nitrates changes, schemes and IFA proposals for the budget.

IFA president Tim Cullinan highlighted proposals the association put forward for the distribution of the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR). Ireland secured €1.2bn as part of the fund, with €300m to €400m allocated to agriculture.

“We think this fund should go to genotyping the national herd. A DNA traceability system could help open up new markets for Irish beef and, through better genetics being used, could also lead to better efficiency and an earlier slaughter age,” he said.

Both Cullinan and IFA director general Damian McDonald were quite vocal in their criticism of the new environmental scheme, ACRES.

Cullinan said: “We have a meeting with the Department of Agriculture on Friday of this week to look for changes to the scheme and we hope to make progress there.”

'Beyond belief'

McDonald said: “It’s beyond belief that the Government would put €1.5bn into a scheme and make a bags of it. Something that should have been a good news story has turned into a negative story.”

There were also calls from the floor for the IFA to look at the possibility of a suckler reduction scheme.

Meath chair John Curran and Cavan chair Maurice Brady called for the proposal to be discussed within the IFA. Both highlighted the difficult financial situation suckler farmers are in and said all options should be looked at.

Criteria

McDonald said: “When the reduction proposal was put to us, we said we were willing to discuss based on a few criteria.

“Firstly, it must be Government-funded, all other sectors must be consulted in its rollout and any reduction scheme shouldn’t affect those that don’t enter the scheme.”

Cullinan highlighted the need for a careful approach: “We got rid of the sugar beet industry and when you get rid of something, it’s very hard to get it back. We don’t what the same thing to happen to sucklers.”