Galway’s farmers say ‘NO’ to BDGP

ONLY one out of three suckler herds in Galway with less than 20 cows have signed up for the Beef Data Genomics Programme (BDGP), according to figures produced by Fianna Fáil Agricultural Spokesman Éamon Ó Cuív.

The West Galway TD said that of 6,415 suckler herds of less than 20 cows in Galway, only 2,092 of those farmers had signed to for the BDGP (suckler) scheme.

He said that the figures provided a ‘damning indictment’ of the failure of the Minister for Agriculture to put in place a scheme that would be acceptable and workable for suckler farmers.

“What has been rolled out is an overly bureaucratic, paper-heavy and time consuming process that many farmers feel is simply not worth the hassle.

“This is seriously worrying given the fact that the suckler herd is the basis of our quality beef industry, which bolsters our domestic and export markets,” said Deputy Ó Cuív.

He said that the latest statistics on the Galway uptake for the scheme came in reply to a parliamentary question that he had submitted over recent weeks.

Deputy Ó Cuív further warned that the uptake for the scheme was likely to decrease even more over the coming weeks as the application packs and conditions were sent out to individual farmers, showing that Minister Coveney had made little or no amendments to the scheme.

“Farmers across Galway are clearly angry and disillusioned with this new scheme.  From the start they outlined their concerns with the complexities and bureaucracy that have been associated with the programme, but despite this, Minister Simon Coveney continued to press ahead with it, ignoring all the red flags along the way.

“The amount of red tape associated with this scheme is unprecedented, and farmers are struggling to deal with the high compliance costs and endless paperwork.

“The majority of them are angry with the series of new regulations which have been brought in and which place a huge administrative burden on them.

“The new star rating is extremely rigid, with many smaller suckler farmers finding it hard to justify the cost of a four or five star stock bull,” said Deputy Ó Cuív.

He added that the six year clawback has also put farmers off applying for the programme with all of them angry over potential penalties which will be forced on them if they pull out of the scheme in the first six years.