The Food Vision Beef and Sheep Group has heard that no climate change mitigation measures should be implemented in those sectors without an economic impact assessment to determine how those measures would impact farm incomes.
The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) told a meeting of the group yesterday (Thursday, September 15) that it will not agree to any measures put forward in the group unless the process in focussed on the “reality that unless the farmer can make an income, climate change actions are a complete waste of time”.
“Farmers can’t be expected to carry the load on their own,” the ICSA’s beef chairperson, Edmund Graham, said.
As well as calling for an impact assessment for climate measures on incomes, the ICSA is also called for a scheme for beef finishers for earlier finishing of cattle on a voluntary basis.
Such a scheme should cover young bull production and finishing steers and heifers in the 24 to 28-month range, the ICSA said.
The association told the Food Vision Beef and Sheep Group that calves entering beef systems from the dairy herd must be genotyped.
Processors will also have to play their part here, according to the ICSA.
The farm organisation is calling for recent factory price cuts to be reversed, and for factories to fulfill their commitment to the live weighing of cattle in factories and sharing that information with their suppliers.
Furthermore, the ICSA outlined the need for a commitment to review the pricing on the 2= fat score.
Finally, the association called for a guarantee that there would be no enforced cut to the suckler herd.
“There is no point expecting farmers in the cattle and sheep sectors to deliver on climate action if they are losing money,” Graham said.
“That is the reality we are dealing with, so unless our beef, suckler and sheep farmers are profitable, they cannot be expected to carry the load on climate action.
The ICSA beef chair also argued that, if the live export of calves and weanlings is stopped, “there is absolutely no hope of getting anywhere near” the 25% emissions reduction target for agriculture by 2030.