The five Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) county chairpeople in Connacht have released a joint statement saying that suckler farmers “have lost faith” in the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF), Teagasc, and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
The statement was issued on behalf of the county chairs of Mayo, Leitrim, Sligo, Galway and Roscommon, as well as Connacht regional chairperson, Pat Murphy.
It follows on from changes that have been implemented to the ICBF terminal and replacement indices.
The statement was issued after a “specially convened” meeting of the five IFA county chairs of Connacht which took place on Wednesday, December 6, in Sligo.
The purpose of the statement, the IFA said, was to “protect the suckler cow because [it] is the backbone of rural families in the west of Ireland”.
The statement said: “Suckler farmers have lost faith in ICBF, Teagasc, and the Department of Agriculture because of the way the changes have been introduced at the end of year one of the SCEP (Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme) scheme.
“There was no mention of any of these changes in their roadshow in March of this year,” it added.
“Farmers in SCEP must be allowed to continue on the original terms and conditions that they signed up to and not be penalised because of the changing of the goalposts, including their replacement strategy.”
The statement went on to say: “Breeders who have bred animals in this and previous schemes must not have their animals downgraded because of changes to ratings if they satisfied previous targets.”
Consultation with suckler farmers
The IFA representatives want to see a complete review for future schemes with a reasonable lead-in and sufficient input from suckler farmers.
The statement was signed by: Pat Murphy; Jarlath Walsh (Mayo chair); Liam Gilligan (Leitrim chair); Michael O’ Dowd (Sligo chair); Stephen Canavan (Galway chair); and Patrick Leonard (Roscommon).
The IFA has said that the ICBF will convene a beef industry stakeholder forum on the changes to replacement and terminal breeding indices for beef animals.
At a meeting of the IFA’s national livestock committee, its chairperson Brendan Golden said that a “robust and frank discussion” was held with the ICBF chief executive, Sean Coughlan.
According to Golden, the committee members “raised the genuine concerns of suckler farmers and pedigree breeders following the issuing of revised terminal and replacement indices”.
Commenting after the meeting, Golden said that the changes must have the confidence of farmers in order to work.
According to the IFA national livestock chairperson, Coughlan committed to convening an industry stakeholder forum to address the concerns raised by the committee.