Huge turnout for Ballinasloe meeting aimed at preserving suckler herd into the future

DECLINING suckler cow numbers – now falling at the rate of 25,000 per year – will lead to disastrous long-term consequences for the Irish beef industry unless the trend is arrested, farmers heard in Ballinasloe on Monday night.

Connacht IFA Regional Chairman, Padraic Joyce, said that farmers were continuing to get out of sucklers simply because the figures were not adding up at the end of the day.

“We are looking at a situation this year where the suckler cow numbers across the country will be dropping below the one million mark – the lowest they have been for many tears – and the trend continues the one way,” said Padraic Joyce.

He said that the cost of keeping a suckler cow for a year was now working out at €850 to €900 per year and with many farmers averaging around €800 each for their weanlings, the financial return on the cow just wasn’t there.

According to Mr. Joyce suckler farmers were having to take from their Basic Payments money each year to balance the books and this was unsustainable.

“I would like to acknowedge the presence of Minister Denis Naughton at the meeting. At least he will bring back a very clear message to the Cabinet table about the perilous state of the entire suckler cow sector.

“We really do need the introduction of an annual €200 per cow payment that can be administered through a welfare scheme that farmers will support.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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