Trevor Boland, Co Sligo

“It’s a no-brainer for me. We were working with figures anyway so it makes complete sense for us. There has been a lot of concern raised among suckler to weanling farmers about the requirement to join the Bord Bia quality assurance scheme but I don’t see a huge problem with it. In fact, when you have passed the quality assurance audit you can be assured that you are in a good place for a cross-compliance inspection. You don’t have to really change the breeding pathway you are on. If you are going to have an issue hitting the targets, you can reduce your reference number in line with where you think you could hit them so it seems pretty flexible, not like BDGP.”

Seán Hayes, Co Clare

“I will be joining the new scheme. We can’t continue suckling without it. There’s a lot of the farmers around here going to join it and I think people are in general more positive to this one compared to BDGP even though the targets are higher. I think people panicked the last time and thought they wouldn’t hit the targets. I think most people got across the line in the end and it’ll probably be a similar story for this one. I think it’s a good addition that you can gradually reduce cow numbers over the lifetime of SCEP. A lot of older farmers are worried about committing to five years of sucklers so this will encourage more in, I think.”

Francie Gorman, Co Laois

“I have joined the SCEP. Suckling is a tight-margin business and you just can’t afford to leave that money behind you. A lot of the requirements of the programme are measures which will make the farm more profitable through breeding more efficient cows so it’s a win-win, I think. It’s really important that we build on the success of this programme with a proper funded BEEP scheme delivering payment of €90/cow. Suckling has been neglected long enough. We need a viable suckler industry for the farmers who have no other choice but to farm drystock because of land constraints etc.”

Maurice Brady, Co Cavan

“I’d be a little surprised at the low level of uptake we have had to the scheme so far. The age profile of suckler farmers mightn’t be helping things but I think everybody should give it serious consideration. I’d be worried about future supports for the sector if we don’t have good uptake to this one. I was at a few meetings and there was a lot of confusion around cows’ indexes dropping since BDGP and farmers thought these were eligible. It was good to get clarification that once a cow was eligible in BDGP she will be OK in SCEP, regardless if she’s only a one-star now.”