Following a meeting of the Food Vision Beef and Sheep Group, it was looking “increasingly likely” the report will be rejected in its entirety, the beef chair of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA), Edmund Graham has said.

The report is not acceptable without support for active farmers, according to the ICSA which aims to get a package for beef and suckler farmers who want to continue farming.

“While there has been a lot of talk about reducing age of slaughter, buy-out schemes and earlier calving, the real point is whether a pathway to making farmers more profitable, while also more sustainable, can be found.

“All of these measures will end up being decided on by farmers who will make rational economic decisions, but unless there is more money on the table, farmers’ options will be limited,” the chair said.

The group’s final report including recommendations to cut emissions in the beef and sheep sectors, was debated at a meeting at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s Backweston Campus in Co. Kildare yesterday (Friday, November 18).

“We want to ensure that livestock farming is sustainable economically first and foremost. Any other sustainability goals are pie in the sky if farmers can’t make a margin. 

“However, the government has put the cart before the horse in its gung-ho approach which set targets before engaging meaningfully on whether what is being asked is achievable or affordable,” according to Graham.

Climate measures

The association’s beef chair also criticised the senior government members who attended the 2022 United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt.

Graham claims government members at COP27 have not properly engaged with those who are being asked to do the most in implementing climate actions. “It’s all very well grandstanding on the global stage but climate measures will not be delivered by politicians,” he added.

“The ICSA is focused on delivering fairness on climate actions and getting a fair share of public funds on the table. Above all, we are determined that meat production in Ireland is not sacrificed for the benefit of others around the globe.

“We are going to fight until the very end to see what kind of funding can be delivered to farmers, but we will not accept farmers being sold down the river to satisfy the targets made up by politicians who have not properly engaged with the farming representatives,” the ICSA beef chair said.

The ICSA’s comments come following an announcement from the Irish Natura Hill Farmers’ Association (INHFA) and the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) yesterday that they have walked away from the report.

In a letter to fellow stakeholders, the INHFA said it has “major issues” with a number of measures and stated that it believes the latter two are “effectively a cull of our suckler herd”.

The IFA said it will not sign up to the report as it currently stands, saying that the Food Vision Beef and Sheep Group’s final report contains “no plans to develop a viable suckler and beef sector”.