Dawn Meats has announced a reduction in the minimum number of days cattle must remain on the final Bord Bia Sustainable Beef and Lamb Assurance Scheme (SBLAS) farm for farmers to qualify for the current ‘in-spec’ bonus payment.
The decision will see the number of days animals must remain on the final SBLAS farm before slaughter reduced from 60 to 30 days and will become effective on all Dawn Meats processing sites from Monday, February 17.
The change follows extensive consultation with domestic and international stakeholders and recent meetings with Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) leadership.
Commenting on the move, Niall Browne, chief executive of Dawn Meats, said: “At Dawn, we have worked with our customers to find areas where it is possible to make changes to our ’in-spec’ bonus payment conditions.
I’m pleased that as a result of our discussions with customers and farming organisations we have been able to make this progress.
“Steer and heifer cattle aged under 30 months from Bord Bia SBLAS-assured farms remain a key point of differentiation for Irish beef and a priority requirement of our European customers and main international export markets.”
Concluding, Browne said: “We will continue to focus additional resources on this category of livestock in our sourcing and marketing strategies in the coming years, to support continued premiumisation of key markets for quality Irish beef.”