Over the last few weeks, an Irish Farmers Journal-led campaign in the Republic of Ireland under the heading of “Save Our Sucklers” has gathered significant momentum.

Given that the industry here seems to be heading out of the EU, some of the main objectives of the campaign are not directly applicable to NI. However, the call for politicians to reject any demands for increased access to EU beef markets is relevant. An agreement that would allow nearly 100,000t of Mercosur beef into the EU is potentially very damaging for all European beef producers.

The campaign has also called for a €200 per head coupled payment for sucklers. NI opinion on that, even within suckler producers, is split.

However, during the last CAP reform, the beef processing sector came out in support of coupled payments.

Yet, perhaps there is more that processors could actually do to encourage farmers to retain suckler cows. The starting point could be to review the current beef grid in NI.

A new grid was produced in September 2010 to coincide with the introduction of VIA grading in 2011. But the remit at the time was that it should be cost-neutral when compared with the previous five-point scale. While there was a small step towards favouring U and R grades, in general the historic price gaps were retained.

But these price gaps (eg a 6p difference between a U and an R) go back many years, right to the time when beef was 150p/kg. On that basis alone, perhaps it is time they were looked at again.

The current beef grid in the Republic of Ireland was introduced in 2009. It was based on Teagasc research, and pays an 18c/kg difference between a U and an R, and the same difference between an R and an O. Recently, there have been some calls to widen the gaps further to account for movement in beef prices since 2009.

In NI, we still have around 14,700 farms with suckler cows. It is these farms that provide the majority of the cattle that hit U and R grades here. One important step to maintaining these herds would be to make sure that the actual value of an animal to a processor is fully reflected in the price paid.