With much debate surrounding changes to the beef breeding index, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine said he is “making sure” that farmers in the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) do not “lose out financially” due to the changes.
Minister Charlie McConalogue faced questions from Claire Kerrane TD today (Thursday, December 14) in the Dáil over the impact of the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) bringing changes to the terminal and replacement indices.
The changes will see star rating changes for some animals which have faced sharp criticism from farm organisations.
Minister McConalogue said: “I have been closely monitoring…the impact of the changes on SCEP farmers.
“What I’m doing with the SCEP programme is making sure that those who are in good faith engaging with the SCEP programme and doing all the right things, that they don’t lose out financially.”
The minister said he is “aware of the concerns amongst some farmers about the recent changes to the ICBF beef index, particularly farmers that are in SCEP.
“I do remain confident the amended indices will improve beef farm profitability and also beef farm sustainability, which is the overarching intention of the SCEP scheme,” McConalogue added.
Index changes
Minister McConalogue mentioned that “animals in SCEP herds whose index falls will not be impacted by the changes unless the SCEP participant sells an animal that has gone down in rating.
“It’s only when this animal moves out of this herd that its three star rating will become applicable for example, if an animal no longer meets the four and five star eligibility criteria.”
However, changes had already begun to have a severe impact on farmers, as Deputy Kerrane informed the minister of a farmer who spoke to her on how he, due to the changes, “overnight lost over €100,000” and has “had to tell his daughter she will not be able to go to college because they wont be able to afford to send her”.
“I understand that from the ICBF that 84% of four and five star animals prior to the changes will retain their four and five star status after the changes,” Minister McConalogue said.
The remaining 16% of farmers were addressed by the Roscommon–Galway TD, who said how they are “really at sea in relation to these changes” and that the “rug has been pulled from under them”.
Kerrane is seeking the changes to the breeding index be paused and called for engagement with stakeholders.
“Its a very reasonable ask for a very short space of time where this would be paused, where engagement would happen, where a solution is found,” Kerrane said.
“There is ongoing engagement between my team and the ICBF in relation to the changes,” Minister McConalogue said, before adding that this was “particularly so that any impacts in the SCEP programme can be considered.
“In relation to the SCEP programme I have as such paused any impact in relation to the payments for cows that are four or five stars who dropped.
“If the cow was five star and it dropped to three star, for as long as that cow is in the SCEP programme, recognising it started off as five stars, that farmer wont be penalised, that cow will continued to be paid on for the duration of the SCEP programme,” he said.
Engagement
The ICBF chief executive officer (CEO), Sean Coughlan appeared before the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine yesterday morning (Wednesday, December 13), alongside the Teagasc beef enterprise leader, Dr. Paul Crosson, and the ICBF chairman, Michael Doran.
Coughlan said that if the changes to the beef breeding indexes were reversed, it would “create even more chaos”.
Minister McConalogue said today that he welcomed that these stakeholders had “taken on this engagement”.
However, Deputy Kerrane responded that there is “little point in setting up a stakeholders forum after they have made a decision”.