The Food Vision Beef and Sheep Group’s final report contains “no plans to develop a viable suckler and beef sector”, and the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) will not sign up to it as it stands.

The group met in Co. Kildare today (Friday, November 18), to discuss the report, which outlines a number of recommended actions to lower emissions from the beef and sheep sectors.

However, the IFA has disagreed with a number of these, leading livestock chair Brendan Golden to say that the organisation would not be signing up to it in its current form.

Speaking after a meeting of the group in Co. Kildare today (Friday, November 18), he said “this report is all about cutting production and further reducing the number of suckler cows in Ireland, which is already falling”.

“This report will increase global emissions because it will result in more beef being produced in countries with a higher carbon footprint for beef production.

“In a week where the global population exceeded 8 billion people, we are trying to reduce food production in one of the countries in the world which is fortunate enough have ideal conditions for producing,” he said.

Golden added that the IFA has sought a meeting with the Minister of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue to discuss the report, and said “it’s time for the minister to get on the pitch and come clean about what his plans for the sectors are”.

The move comes following an announcement from the Irish Natura Hill Farmers’ Association (INHFA) earlier today that they have walked away from the report.

It disagrees with a number of the outlined actions, including the recommendations to reduce the slaughter age to 24 months, reduce first-calving age to 24 months, the introduction of a farm diversification scheme and the rollout of a farm extensification scheme.

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