Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has been called on to put forward a financial package that would cover the full on-farm costs of bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD).
The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) made the call following the issuance of payments to farmers last week under the BVD tag testing scheme.
The payments, coming to a total of just over €1.98 million, were made to 64,833 applicants. Farmers began receiving payments this week.
The support comprises payment of €2/calf, based on calves registered, up to a maximum of 25 calves per herd.
Speaking this evening (Wednesday, September 26), TJ Maher, the IFA’s animal health chairperson, said that BVD testing costs annually on farms extend to almost €10 million.
“Over the course of the BVD programme, farmers have spent well over €120 million since 2012 in testing and associated costs alone,” Maher said.
“It is now time for the minister to recognise the enormous investment made by farmers in the programme to date, both directly and indirectly, and come forward with proposals that remove the cost burden on farmers as the programme approaches the proof of freedom phrase,” he added.
According to Maher, the successful conclusion of the BVD programme from a farmer’s perspective will be critical in determining if there is a future role for the Animal Health Ireland (AHI) model and the levels of support, if any, for tackling issues such as infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR).
Maher again criticised AHI for its support of the inclusion of an IBR testing requirement in the new National Beef Welfare Scheme (NBWS).
“Farmers are rightly furious at the lack of government support for the BVD programme to date and the behaviour of AHI in recent weeks and months in relation to the approach to IBR,” Maher said.
“Both the minister and AHI have a job of work to do to restore farmer confidence in the AHI model as a result, and the starting point for this is a satisfactory conclusion to the on-farm testing costs for BVD,” the IFA animal health chair added.