'Breeding heifer payment needed' to halt fall in cattle numbers - mart manager
A breeding heifer payment is needed to encourage farmers to breed additional heifers, the manager of one Co. Kerry-based mart has said.
Speaking to Agriland, Gortatlea Mart manager, Maurice Brosnan believes this support payment is needed to quell the further demise of the national breeding herd numbers.
The mart manager's comments come as the total 2025 calf registration numbers have declined by over 56,000 head, according to the latest figures from the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF).
Brosnan emphasised the importance of the suckler industry to both the greater Irish economy and the rural economy in particular.
Commenting on the need to incentivise suckler production in Ireland, he said: "I'm shouting about this for years.
"It's in all of our interests to keep everyone going but it is only coming to a head now because the factories know about it [the shortage of cattle] and a lot of the marts know about it. Some marts have zero continental weanlings going into them now."
Brosnan noted the breed bonuses paid on some cattle at factories are predominantly benefiting dairy-bred stock.
He said: "The suckler farmer should have got the bonuses on their animals, it was done all wrong".
"They made no effort at all to keep the suckler farmer going."
On how the support should be rolled out, he said: "Any first-calving cows, give them a special headage payment and let people produce what they want - don't mind these four and five star rubbish, let people produce what they want and farm the way they want.
"If they put in a headage payment for any farmer that will have a first-calving heifer calve down and give them that grant on it, it would be something to push it anyway.
"It's in all our interest, they'll starve the world the way they're going," the mart manager said.
