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DEAR SIR: I see from recent comments made by Pat McCormack, president of ICMSA, that he feels a lot of foot dragging and objections to dairy beef being included in Ireland’s PGI application are being used to stall the process.
I can see no objection to Bord Bia, ICMSA and the processors making their PGI application for dairy beef, based on the current criteria. The current application should be based on dairy beef only and let the dairy industry promote this product on its merits, the Hereford and Angus brands, grass-fed and so on. The dairy industry has expanded rapidly over the past seven years. It has been very successful and has got a lot of support from the Government which has been the right thing to do since the abolition of quotas, as Ireland has an advantage in dairy production. However, we must realise that dairying is not for all farmers and our suckler industry must also be nurtured and cared for as well. It has come in for a lot of negative publicity on climate change etc and wrongly so.
One of the side effects of dairy expansion has been an increase of approximately 8,000 poorer-quality cattle being available each week for slaughter, which has depressed the market price and substantially depreciated the value of prime suckler beef.
My own definition of a beef farmer is one who breeds beef cattle from beef cattle for beef markets and raises them naturally, i.e suckler beef. Having purchased weanlings recently in Sixmilebridge, Roscommon, Ballinakill, New Ross and marts in my own area, it is incredible to see the quality of cattle still being produced by the suckler herd. We seem to have the farmers, the facilities and the quality in our beef herd, but we have been seriously let down on marketing.
The Minister for Agriculture must now focus on increasing returns from the marketplace for the suckler beef herd. He must direct Bord Bia to put in a major effort to brand and promote suckler beef on its own unique merits – naturally reared, high food conversion efficiency and low carbon footprint, to name but a few.
What Irish suckler farmers need is a brand and we need to put all efforts into branding our product now. We have no need, at this point in time, for either a PGI or a grass-fed status. In Irish marts today, dairy weanlings are returning between €1.00 to €1.50/kg, whereas suckler weanlings are returning between €2.50 to €3.00/kg.
I would remind Pat McCormack that this is not subdivision, but market reality. Bord Bia needs to focus the promotion of suckler beef on its own merits and I can see no problem with the dairy/beef application going ahead straight away.
The Scottish PGI only includes suckler beef. This is what we must work for to try to get a genuine premium from the market.
The “one cap fits all” does the genuine beef farmer a huge disservice. It’s time to take the politics out of beef farming and promote both beef from the dairy herd and the suckler herd separately and on their own merits.
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