The Beef Plan Movement has confirmed its intention to request “full and official recognition” as a stakeholder body by the Irish government in 2024.
Eamon Corley, chair of the Beef Plan Movement, told Agriland :“We met Minister McConalogue three years ago, at which time we were advised of seven criteria that Beef Plan must meet in order to secure official recognition as a stakeholder body. This included the hosting of three annual general meetings.
“As far as the Beef Plan membership is concerned, we have now met all of these criteria. As a result, we will be seeking a face-to-face meeting with the minister in early 2024.”
Beef Plan Movement
Looking back on 2023, Corley said that beef prices held up reasonably well over the last 12 months.
He added: “The plants pulled the prices paid for cattle at the back end and, as every farmer knows only too well, input prices remained at very high levels throughout the year.
“However, the overall tone of the beef market in 2023 would give farmers a degree of confidence for the future.”
He expects that two policy issues will dominate the lobbying priorities of the Beef Plan Movement during the early months of 2024.
Corley said: “The government must recognise that cattle are not adding to the level of carbon emissions into the atmosphere, when assessed over a 12 year cycle.
“As a result, ruminant animal are not adding to the climate change burden at all. As a consequence, Beef Plan Movement will not be accepting any attempt to reduce suckler cow numbers in Ireland.
“The real cause of the problem remains the extraction of fossil rules from the ground.”
He also outlined that the movement will lobby to have the new star rating system for suckler cows reversed.
Corley added: “What we have is a plan devised by ICBF and Teagasc that discriminates against the heavier and better muscled breeds of cattle and, again, this all comes back to the issue of climate change.
“This is inherently unfair. There remains a strong demand for the likes of Charolais, Limousin and Simmental-bred weanlings on export markets.
“But cattle of this quality will not be available if suckler farmers are forced to keep the lighter type of cow, simply to avail of the subsidies that are on offer.”
He said what the movement wants to see is a return to the old rating system, which he believes “did not discriminate between breeds”.