The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine wants Ireland to become the first country in the world to “genotype all livestock” in the country.
MInister McConalogue told the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) annual general meeting (AGM) today (Tuesday, January 24) that he believes this will happen and that by delivering on this it will “show the world that Ireland is more than an outpost on the edge of Europe”.
“We are leaders and pioneers,” he added.
“We have a beef sector that is the envy of the world and the starting point in all of this is the farmer who calves the cow, rears the calf, produces the weanling or store and, ultimately, finishes the animal.
“Genotyping can be a huge help here. I am considering how that might be achieved, having regard to the funding that might be made available, the climate impact and a variety of organisational and logistical challenges,” Minister McConalogue told the 68th IFA AGM meeting.
All three ministers in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, including Ministers of State, Pippa Hackett and Martin Heydon attended the AGM and at times faced difficult questions from the floor from farmers during the meeting.
There were tense exchanges over issues like emissions targets, the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES), the Gresham House/Coillte backed forestry fund and the Nitrates Action Programme.
Minister McConalogue said that the Climate Action Plan for 2023 committed every sector, including agriculture, to strong climate action.
“In agriculture, the focus is on reducing nitrogen and methane emissions, while increasing carbon capture and storage and contributing in a positive way to the decarbonisation of the energy system.
“We need to accelerate progress through reduced application of nitrogen-based fertilisers, replacing them with protected urea and reducing the age of cattle finishing.
“I recognise that achieving this ambition will not be without its challenges and that significant transformational change will be required,” he said.
Minister McConalogue also referenced what he described as the “speculation on the possibility of voluntary reduction schemes for those who wish to reduce stock numbers”.
He said:
“I have already clarified my position in relation to a suckler reduction scheme. I do not intend to proceed with it”.
The minister added that if “we were to contemplate any such scheme on the dairy side I would intend to use 2022 as a reference year against which any reduction would be measured”.
Throughout the AGM ministers were left in no doubt about the level of anger and concern in the room about current key issues such as the “income crisis” on sheep farms.
The IFA sheep committee chair, Kevin Comiskey, told Minister McConalogue that sheep farmers “won’t survive” and that they are no longer getting “a week’s wages”.
In response the minister said he was “open to engaging” with the IFA to establish if the sheep sector meets the criteria to draw down support from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve.
The minister was keen to stress to IFA members that he was actively “backing farm families” and said the government was “focussed on ensuring there is a strong and stable sector” for subsequent generations.
He acknowledged that the agriculture sector had been impacted by the fall out from the war in Ukraine and highlighted various government support packages that directly injected finance into businesses and farms.
Minister McConalogue said “keeping farmers farming” was a key priority for the government while also “taking a more proactive approach to our climate and biodiversity ambitions”.
He also pointed to the new €10 billion Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as a key support for “130,000 farm families and the rural economy” and highlighted the role of schemes such as the Suckler Carbon Efficiency scheme, ACRES and Organics in helping farmers “reduce their environmental impact”.
“There is still much to do, and we are still working on the development of these new systems. But we are committed to getting these crucial schemes in place and ready for issuing payments later this year,” the minister added.
He said was delighted with the “exceptionally high application rate” for ACRES of more than 46,000 farmers.
“We are currently working through every application and assessing that all are in order before we move to the next stage,” he told IFA members at the AGM.
“I’m aware of the issue of a gap year for some farmers arising this year as they transition out of Green Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS) into ACRES.
“I’m giving it full consideration but let me be clear, my top priority is to support farmers and their ambition to improve our climate and biodiversity. We want to ensure that no one is left behind,” Minister McConalogue added.
But he also warned that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine “can’t allow a situation where all other farmer payments are affected by stretching too far”.