ICOS national marts executive Ray Doyle said he had raised the issue at a meeting of the Farmers’ Charter Monitoring Committee with Department of Agriculture officials in Portlaoise this Thursday.

“There is no issue getting true and fair value for in-calf heifers or cull cows where the pricing of these animals is widely known and recognised in the market. However, for dairy herds with animals in their second, third or fourth lactation, the true market value of these premier animals is rarely paid to the farmer,” Doyle said.

Genetics

With very few productive dairy cows sold in the marts, he argued that valuations based on market prices did not reflect the genetics and rearing investments made by farmers. He called for an additional compensatory premium to apply in these cases.

ICOS is adding its voice to that of the IFA, which has long campaigned for a reform of the valuation system, which includes the categorisation of animals along strict criteria such as milk yield and a penalty points systems for contractors providing higher valuations.

The prices being paid for reactor animals were fair

In a recent Dáil statement, Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed stood by the current system, arguing that valuers worked off a database including prices recorded at premier, dispersal, reduction and other special sales for breeding stocks and at seven marts around the country for non-breeding stock. A coefficient also applies to high-EBI cows to increase their valuation, although farmers have said this did not reflect the true value of high merit animals.

Minister Creed added that an appeals process was in place to obtain a second valuation if requested, and only 59 valuations out of 3,958 were appealed last year. “An EU audit of the financial transactions under the TB eradication programme found that the prices being paid for reactor animals were fair and were, in fact, in line with market prices,” he said.

Accounts just published for 2016 show that the Department spent €5.4m less than planned on animal health because of a reduction in the number of TB cases.

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