A €300 per suckler cow support payment has been endorsed by University College Dublin’s Professor of Agriculture and Food Economics.

Speaking at the Tullamore Farm National Suckler and Sheep Open Day on Tuesday, Professor Michael Wallace said supports for suckler cows need to reach €300/head to sustain these farms.

The Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) and the Beef Welfare Scheme curently give a combined payment of €200/cow.

“We were talking earlier about €200/cow. It probably needs to be closer to the €300 mark to improve the viability of suckler enterprises,” he said.

Prof Wallace said he thinks the national suckler herd will fall to between 600,000 and 700,000 by 2030.

This figure stood at 818,600 in December 2023, according to the Central Statistics Office.

“I believe there will be a core of farms for whom suckler cows will be an integral part of the business. What we are seeing is a lot of small holdings definitely moving away from that.

“I think the [Teagasc] Small Farm Survey has highlighted that issue of farmers disengaging and leaving the industry.

Consolidation

“A lot of those smaller farmers are suckler operators. I think we’ll see consolidation in the industry with serious people staying with it and operating at high levels of efficiency,” he added.

During the same panel discussion, which marked the launch of the KPMG report for the Irish Farmers Journal, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue agreed with the report’s findings on the implications of the loss of Ireland’s nitrates derogation.

“That’s something we’re very much aware of.

“There’s no doubt, any further reduction below 220[kg/N ha] and there will be knock-on effects across our agricultural sector.

“So, it’s absolutely crucial and it is a national imperative,” he added.