The coincidence of western marts’ cattle numbers falling by 13% and the decline in French cattle numbers over the last decade by the same amount is in stark contrast to the increase in the Brazilian herd while Australia has also increased its numbers by about 10% over the last decade.

New Zealand is seeing an increase in its beef herd while its dairy herd slowly declines.

Of these major non-EU livestock producers, New Zealand is the only country to have developed real emission (methane) reduction targets but even they have pushed their target dates out to 2050.

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It is worth noting that the EU itself has an overall methane reduction target focusing mostly on the oil and energy industries but no specific targets for livestock-generated reduction.

It is not clear why Ireland has gone out on a limb in this regard. We are joined only by Denmark which has just got rid of its agricultural ministry.

But on a broader front, we should keep abreast of the latest scientific analysis in this area.

There are now convincing scientific studies showing that even if all the cattle in the world were killed off, the best estimate is that the temperature would fall on a once-off basis by 0.04°C and that’s assuming that the mass abandonment of land would not cause any extra emissions from rewilding or termite activity, nor would it include the damage caused to the reduction of high quality protein nutrients to the human population.

At a minimum this new scientific work calls for a reassessment of the Irish position on greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and the effects these measures are having on farmer costs.

A reduction of one hundredth of a degree over a 20-year period is too small to meaningfully measure and of course is utterly dwarfed by the undoubted increase in temperatures caused by fossil fuel use.

Issue

The issue for the Irish government of course is to decide whether it’s worth taking the issue seriously enough to revisit our commitments both at home and in Brussels and to get the scientific consensus opened up for reexamination.

The Irish legislation was pushed through as a result of Green Party pressure at cabinet.

They were obviously in government at the time and were in a position of real influence.

But when we have the likes of Prof Myles Allen from Oxford University, the outstanding scientist in this area on this side of the Atlantic backing a new approach, it’s time to reconsider – if we want to retain a competitive milk and beef industry.