This is a subscriber-only article
Farmers concerned about the need to weigh cattle as part of the new Beef Environmental Efficient Pilot (BEEP), have been assured by Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed that weighing scales will cost less than €50 to rent.
“We envisage it would cost less than €50 to rent out the scales,” Minister Creed told farmers at the ICMSA AGM in Limerick last Friday.
Listen to "Minister on live exports, CAP and BEEP" on Spreaker.
The €20m BEEP scheme was announced in Budget 2019 and will provide €40/cow for the weighing of a suckler cow and her calf. Some farmers were apprehensive that they would not be able to access the scheme if they did not have a set of scales on-farm but Minister Creed reassured them that the Department had a “weighing scales booking system” ready to roll-out in tandem with the scheme next year.
“You return the scales to Tipperary Co-op or Dairygold Co-op or wherever you hired it from,” Minister Creed said.
Some beef farmers had been hoping for a €200/suckler cow payment in Budget 2019, and there was an obvious sense of frustration among the 200-strong crowd at the ICMSA AGM as they questioned Minister Creed on the issue of beef prices.
The minister admitted that beef prices were “on the floor” but stated: “I can’t fix the price of beef.”
He pointed to the 30% increase in live exports this year but said that the loss of the Turkish market due to their currency crisis had been a “body-blow”.
In addition, the Department intends to purchase over 400 weighing scales to assist farmers, according to the IFA.
However, any costs associated with the scheme must be carried by the Department and not farmers, IFA’s Brendan Golden insisted.
SHARING OPTIONS: