There was intense criticism from farmers for Meat Industry Ireland’s (MII) blueprint for an extra million lambs at a sheep meeting in Enniscorthy on Tuesday night.

MII has proposed that Ireland target a 40% increase in lamb numbers – about a million extra lambs annually. IFA sheep chair John Lynskey, while welcoming many aspects of the report, said that sheep farmers are sceptical of a significant increase in the number of lambs when they see prices falling by €1/kg or €20 per lamb in recent weeks.

“Farmers will only respond and grow output if the factories demonstrate that markets are capable of returning and sustaining profitable prices to producers,” he said.

Pressure

At the Enniscorthy meeting, John Walsh of Irish Country Meats came under pressure regarding the proposal. While Walsh refused to engage in a debate on price, he did respond to a query from a farmer regarding specification. The farmer asked why the 21kg upper weight limit was being so strictly enforced at present, but he was paid for up to 23kg carcases when numbers were tight earlier in the year.

“That’s simply supply and demand,” said Walsh.

Farmer James Hill siezed on this inconsistency. Quoting figures presented by Teagasc’s Ciaran Hickey, he said that currently the best farmer with a 1,000-ewe flock on 100ha would have an income of only €33,000. Hill said that factories who cut prices when an extra 12,000 sheep a week came on the market could not be trusted with a million extra lambs.

The flock in Ireland did expand in 2015, but by more modest levels than MII projected. Declan Fennell of Bord Bia said the preliminary results of the 2015 sheep census indiate an increase of 3% in the ewe flock. In all, there were 176,000 extra sheep at the end of last year, a 5% increase on 2014. There are 3,760,425 sheep in Ireland among 35,254 flocks, an average of 107 sheep per flock. The total flock of included 2,501,000 ewes (up 81,000), 85,000 rams (up 500), and 1,172,000 other sheep (up 91,000).

The “other sheep” category includes lambs and hoggets targeted for breeding. Bord Bia’s Quality Assurance scheme was criticised by a succession of farmers from the floor. While accepting the need for a scheme, farmers said that the regime was not farmer-friendly.

Criticism

Another subject for criticism was EID, or more specifically, the MII suggestion that EID be compulsory for all sheep. The IFA’s Kevin Kinsella said that the derogation to allow lambs going directly from the farm of birth to slaughter was hard-won and would not be given up. He added that there could be no linkage between the new €25m sheep scheme and EID.

The IFA had met the Department regarding the scheme this week, with John Lynskey saying afterwards that the scheme must be simple, with optional tasks only and involve minimal costs on farmers.

The IFA will meet with Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed on the issue today (Thursday).

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