The ban on the slaughter of calves is on track to be implemented in 2024.

First proposed by ICOS last November, the measure is set to be included as a standard in the Bord Bia Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme (SDAS).

The Bord Bia technical advisory committee is set to meet in the coming weeks to discuss the new criteria and, pending the outcome of these discussions, it will be included in SDAS for 2024. The ICOS calf charter prohibits the slaughter of healthy calves at less than eight weeks of age.

If incorporated into SDAS, farmers who continue to slaughter calves next year will be in breach of the assurance scheme.

All Irish milk processors have SDAS approval set as a requirement for milk supply and, in most cases, this is written into the milk supply agreements and the rules of the co-op.

If a supplier is not SDAS approved, the processor does not have to collect their milk or it can impose severe penalties on milk price for that supplier.

The Irish Farmers Journalunderstands that, pending the outcome of the Bord Bia technical advisory committee meeting, discussions may have to take place around sharing of slaughter data between various organisations.

At present, individual animal detail and registration data is collected by the Department of Agriculture through the AIMS database and this is currently not being shared with Bord Bia.

However, at the time of an SDAS audit, the inspector has access to the farmer’s herd profile and can check mortality rates and animal sales records.

The eight-week age under which calves cannot be slaughtered is set to apply even if farmers sell calves to a third party who subsequently slaughters them.

Despite the incoming ban, the number of calves slaughtered so far this year is running higher than last year.

Provisional data shows that 3,946 calves were slaughtered in approved processing plants last week. Some 17,730 calves were slaughtered in the year to date, which is similar to last year.

In 2022, there were 28,388 calves slaughtered, which represented 1.78% of the total dairy births of 1.59m calves.