The president of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) Dermot Kelleher has said that government funding is urgently needed to support active suckler, beef and sheep farmers.
Kelleher welcomed the recent announcement from the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, that a beef reduction scheme is “off the table” as part of the Climate Action Plan.
“It is now imperative that we look at ways of funding active suckler, beef, and sheep farmers to keep them viable and to help them improve efficiency metrics which will also benefit the climate targets.
“ICSA fought hard at the Food Vision beef group meetings to protect the suckler herd and it is good to see those efforts pay off. However, more needs to be done,” Kelleher said.
ICSA
During a meeting with Minister McConalogue prior to Christmas, the ICSA proposed a €250 million annual support programme to help farmers to meet climate targets.
€80 million would be earmarked for store producers and beef finishers as part of a scheme to weigh cattle at regular intervals with a view to earlier average finishing.
The ICSA proposed that an additional €60 million could be aimed at suckler farmers to increase funding agreed in the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and Budget 2023.
A similar funding top-up of €50 million was proposed for sheep farmers in order to deliver a payment of €35/ewe.
“These payments are vital, not only to make the cattle and sheep sectors more sustainable, but also to ensure that we keep a balance between dairy and less intensive systems.
“If we allow suckler and beef numbers to decline further, we are simply adding to the increase in dairy numbers.
“The reality is that agriculture can only make progress on climate targets if the government accepts that climate action costs money,” the ICSA president said.