DEAR SIR

Our Government seems intent on destroying our suckler herd. The latest ICBF figures show approximately 30% of all calvings are from the suckler herd. This is down from 52% in 2012. The chair of the Food Vision group, Prof Thia Hennessey, said that they were asked to find a path to achieve a 25% reduction in emissions from the beef and sheep sector and then look at the cost. I think it is now obvious that we must have two beef sections, dairy beef and suckled beef.

The suckler herd has reduced by 30% since 2012 while the dairy herd has increased by more than 60% in that period. With this fact on the table, and being taken into account, it is the dairy industry that must show leadership to both face and deal with the reality of the situation their industry find themselves in.

Minister McConologue said this week that the suckler herd is the anchor of the beef industry, as the anchor continually gets smaller he knows the industry will eventually disappear. If we are to be serious about emissions it has to be about efficiency. It is well known that beef bred animals are far more efficient at beef production than dairy animals. Asking beef farmers to raise dairy beef animals is like asking dairy farmers to milk Charolais cows.

There is talk of a scheme to reduce the slaughter age of beef cattle. This will only work if it is rewarding weight for age as this will reduce the emissions per kilo of beef produced, otherwise we will see a lot more cattle slaughtered at fat score 1 which is now becoming a problem, at more than 12%. Looking to reduce the suckler herd to allow the dairy herd to expand is flawed.

Asking suckler farmers to reduce their numbers is targeting the people who are not part of the problem as they are just doing the same as they always did. Suckler farmers are small family farms across Ireland on marginal land and are now being bombarded with policies trying to choke them out of business:

1. Major cuts in CAP support.

2. ACRES.

3. Organic schemes.

These are all designed to get these people out of beef production. How many applicants have we for these schemes in the dairy sector? Minister, are we better off with large intensive farmers, now with over 1,500 herds with more than 200 cows or small low-stocked farms with 20-30 cows with much more biodiversity and a lot less pressure on the environment? Targeting a big reduction in the suckler herd (to cull 200,000 suckler cows – last week’s Irish Farmers Journal) will have a devastating effect on rural Ireland and the beef industry. All of the environmental schemes on the table are targeted at the drystock sector, yet, it is clear that all of the environmental concerns that we have now are coming from a vastly expanded dairy sector. How can the minister justify this?

It is clear we need to put major support into the suckler herd to try to stabilise our numbers and the dairy industry needs to put serious thought into how they can reduce their emissions to meet the 25% target that is set in legislation.