A delegation from the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) met with officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) this week to state its concerns and seek changes to the suckler scheme under the next Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) 2023-2027.
ICSA president, Dermot Kelleher and suckler chair, Ger O’Brien were among the delegation.
The ICSA president said he is increasingly concerned that plans under the DAFM’s proposed CAP strategy for sucklers are going in the wrong direction.
“The first problem is that the DAFM proposals do not address the legitimate concerns suckler farmers had with the outgoing Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP).
“There is complete tunnel vision in terms of breeding strategy and targets. ICSA objects very strongly to the idea that farmers will have to have 75% of females rated four or five stars on the maternal index by the end of the scheme.”
“ICSA is proposing that there should be a more holistic approach to breeding, which recognises that many suckler farmers are doing a great job breeding and utilising Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) data.
“But their focus also includes terminal traits such as conformation. A target that is excessively focused on maternal traits is not the way forward and, in any event, it will be impossible to achieve for all scheme entrants.”
The ICSA president also insisted that membership of the Bord Bia Beef Quality Assurance Scheme (BQAS) could not be a condition of the suckler scheme.
“This is a red-line issue for ICSA, and we made it very clear that farmers would not accept this. If everyone is coerced into BQAS, then nobody will benefit from it.
“Farmers must have freedom to choose and let the marketplace provide the incentives for being in BQAS.”
“ICSA is also concerned about the future of the Beef Environmental Efficiency Pilot (BEEP) scheme. They are taking the weighing measure out of BEEP and this will be devastating for the farmers who preferred not to participate in BDGP.”
He said the minister must work with ICSA and commit to delivering a BEEP scheme that is simple and beneficial to suckler farmers.
“The fact remains, however, that even if ICSA succeeds in improving the suckler scheme, there is still no pathway to €300/cow.
“Anyone who has the interest of the suckler sector at heart, must now recognise that the ICSA proposal to create a coupled suckler payment in Pillar 1 is the only way to deliver €300/cow.”