Concerns surrounding the Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) are set to be the key focus of a meeting to be held in the Bush Hotel in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim, tomorrow night (Thursday, July 26).

Being organised by Shane Ellis, who will contest the next general election as a Fianna Fail candidate, the meeting is set to see a number of breed society representatives, farmers and mart managers come together to discuss their collective concerns.

Representatives from the live export sector will also be present at the meeting, he added. The meeting is scheduled to get underway at 8:30pm tomorrow night.

Speaking to AgriLand, Ellis said that the current situation regarding the BDGP and the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) will be the main topic of the meeting’s agenda.

He believes that the BDGP scheme “is letting down both pedigree and commercial breeders” in its present format.

The Fianna Fail candidate is of the opinion that the programme needs to be “totally rehashed”. Farmers are deciding to leave the scheme due to excessive “red tape” and “bureaucracy”, he claimed.

Meanwhile, Ellis outlined that money needs to be ring fenced to support the suckler industry under the next round of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Breed societies to meet ICBF

As well as this, it is understood that the pedigree beef breed societies will meet with the ICBF in the near future to discuss their differences.

In a statement issued at the beginning of this month, the Pedigree Cattle Breeders’ Council of Ireland outlined that the breed societies wished to apologise to Teagasc for their non-attendance at BEEF 2018 last month.

But, the breed societies wished to highlight that – due to ongoing difficulties with ICBF matters – they felt that they were “left with no other option in order to try and get discussion initiated and hopefully issues addressed”.