Pat O'Neill (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The association is largely dairy-based. It should be borne in mind that it is not possible to have dairy cattle on 50% of the land. We heard about Food Harvest 2020. Milk quotas will be eliminated in 2015. I understand the split between the national suckler and dairy herds is roughly 50:50. In recent years, we have developed excellent quality in our suckler herd, as evidenced in the benefits of the suckler cow scheme. We have the potential to increase the proportion of cattle from 50% to 70% of the national herd, which would result in a sudden reduction in the beef herd. If the quality of our beef industry declines, what would be the point in continuing with beef given that countries would no longer be interested in importing Irish beef?

If dairy production were to increase to 15 billion litres per annum, how many Friesians and Holsteins would be needed to produce this milk? One can only push genetics so far, which means one will have to increase the number of dairy cattle. Does the delegation envisage a cull of male Holstein cattle or the use of semen which will produce only female animals?