Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

I thank the Chairman and committee members for providing me with the opportunity to update them on developments regarding the beef data and genomics programme, which was launched by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Simon Coveney, on 5 May 2015. It is part of Ireland’s Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, and it involves funding of some €300 million over the next six years, and builds on the State’s investment in data recording and genomics in recent years. It will address widely acknowledged weaknesses in the maternal genetics of the Irish suckler herd, make a positive contribution to farmer profitability and reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of Ireland’s beef production.

Beef accounts for 35% of the gross output of the agriculture sector. It is arguably the most important primary agricultural product in Ireland at farm level. Beef exports in 2014 amounted to 524,000 tonnes, worth €2.27 billion. Ireland exports 90% of its beef. We are the largest net exporter of beef in the EU and the fifth largest in the world. In addition to beef exports, Ireland also has a strong live export trade to Europe and beyond, with more than 236,000 live animals exported in 2014 at a value of over €172 million.

The suckler herd is a critical component of the industry. It is beef from the suckler herd that has principally enabled us to succeed on international retail markets. It is important, therefore, that policy at EU and national level recognises the challenges and opportunities facing suckler beef farmers and provides the infrastructure to help it to respond and thrive in this environment. There is a clear profitability challenge on suckler farms, which is not a new phenomenon. The 2014 Teagasc national farm survey showed that cattle-rearing farms had an average family farm income of just over €10,000 and that for many suckler farmers the income received from direct payments exceeded the income they received from the market.

In addition, the impact of livestock production has become a critical part of the international debate on climate change. While the production of beef in Ireland has a low carbon footprint relative to some competitors, in Ireland the agriculture sector accounts for a high percentage of our overall emissions. Positioning Ireland in the international marketplace as a producer of high-quality, environmentally sustainable beef through initiatives such as Origin Green has been a central part of Bord Bia’s marketing and promotion strategy on international markets.

In its October 2014 conclusions on the EU’s Climate and Energy Framework to 2030, the European Council recognised the need to meet rising global demand for food in a way that is environmentally sustainable, and committed the Commission to examining how to encourage the sustainable intensification of food production.

Improving the genetics of the suckler herd can make a positive contribution in all of these areas. Research from Teagasc and the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation, ICBF, shows that the suckler herd faces significant breeding challenges at present. The sector has been successful in breeding animals for terminal-type traits such as carcass weight and carcass conformation in response to market demand for high-output beef animals. However, there has been less concentration on maternal efficiency traits such as fertility and milk yield, which are equally important for producing good weanlings and improving profitability.

On average, Irish beef farmers produce only eight calves for every ten suckler cows, and this trend has not been improving. The interval between calving has been expanding and is now well in excess of 400 days, at 419 days. This is going in the wrong direction and the reality on the ground is well beyond the target of one calf per cow every 365 days. There are similar concerns in relation to other measures such as the age at first calving and weight of calves at weaning.

The beef data and genomics programme, BDGP, is a response to these challenges. It provides targeted support to suckler farmers. It builds on the success of the State’s investment of €9 million in the beef data programme in each of 2013 and 2014, and on the success of the pilot beef genomics scheme, which involved investment of around €23 million last year. The BDGP will enhance our knowledge and understanding of the national herd through increased data collection and genotyping. Farmers can utilise this information to retain the best types of animal as replacement heifers for breeding. The rationale for the scheme is based on the relationship between carbon and economic efficiency at farm level. It is critical that there is a synergy between carbon efficiency and economic efficiency. By producing animals more efficiently in terms of fertility levels and milk yields, the beef sector can benefit on the double - first, through an improvement in profitability for farmers from producing weanlings or finished animals, and second, through a reduction in the amount of greenhouse gases emitted in the production of these animals per kilo of beef.

The BDGP is the first measure of its kind anywhere in the EU. It has been approved by the European Commission under Article 28 of the Rural Development Regulation, which deals with agri-environment measures. Programmes approved under this article are required to comply with certain requirements. The first is that payments are based on the cost incurred and income foregone in carrying out the programme. This is a principle which applies to rural development schemes generally. Any modification or deletion of actions in the programme would of course result in a corresponding reduction in payments. Second, commitments must, under the regulation, be for a period of five to seven years. The BDGP requires a six-year commitment by the scheme applicant and this is matched by a corresponding commitment from Government to provide a stable and guaranteed payment to applicants over that six-year period. Some concerns have been expressed regarding this six-year commitment and, as a result, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Coveney, has signalled a number of flexibilities regarding exit during the six-year programme. I am happy to go into these in more detail later if the committee wishes. All agri-environment measures are required to be paid on a per-hectare basis.

Participants in the BDGP will receive a payment of €142.50 for the first 6.66 hectares and €120 for each hectare thereafter, up to a maximum payable hectarage. This is equivalent to approximately €95 for the first ten calved cows and €80 for each additional calved cow. Participants will also receive an additional €166 to attend a training course linked to the programme. The maximum payable hectarage is calculated by dividing the number of calved cows in the herd in 2014 - the reference amount - by a standard stocking rate of 1.5 calved cows per hectare. On the basis of this stocking rate, the vast majority of farmers have far more land than they require to obtain the maximum payment under the scheme. Almost half of farmers have a stocking rate of 0.5 or less and 90% have a stocking rate of less than one. An example is that a farmer with ten cows and a stocking rate of 0.5 will have 20 hectares, but will require less than seven of these to attract the full payment under the scheme.

In return for this payment, which is calculated on a cost-incurred and income-foregone basis, the participant will be required to undertake six actions, many of which are already known to and well understood by participants in last year’s beef data and genomics schemes. The first requirement is to provide calving details. Participants must complete a calving ease survey for each calf born on the farm using what is known as the animals events sheet. This is in addition to normal tagging and registration requirements and can be completed online or through the animal events book provided by the ICBF.

Farmers are familiar with this requirement, which is exactly the same as that under the beef data programme during the past two years.

The second action involves the completion and submission of survey forms for the cows, calves and stock bulls on a farm. The data submitted will relate to criteria such as milking ability, docility, calf size and calf vigour. This is vital information for the database behind the breeding indexes, which are developed by the ICBF, and will strengthen the robustness of breeding advice provided to farmers. Again, this requirement is the same as that which applied to farmers who were involved in the beef data programme in recent years, albeit with some additional information now required.

The third requirement relates to the genotyping of animals on farms. This requirement was the central component of the pilot beef genomics scheme last year. The only difference under the BDGP will be the increase in the percentage of animals to be genotyped. However, this will be matched by an increase in payment. As with last year’s scheme, the proportion of the payment to the farmer absorbed by genotyping costs is expected to be approximately 15%. The position will, therefore, be much the same as last year. The ICBF will select animals to be genotyped in each herd and will notify the owners of the animals selected. Tissue tags will be supplied to the participants for this purpose. The selection of animals will be based on a genotyping plan developed by the ICBF. The number of animals to be genotyped each year will be equal to 60% of the number of calved suckler cows that the applicant had on his or her holding in 2014, that is, the applicant’s reference animals to which I referred earlier. For example, an applicant with 15 reference animals in 2014 must have sufficient animals to genotype nine animals in each year of the programme, without repetition. This increased level of genotyping improves the reliability of the breeding indexes and, importantly, ensures the identification of sufficient numbers of four- and five-star females required by BDGP herds.

The replacement strategy relates to both the stock bull and the female replacements introduced into herds during the six-year programme. In order to achieve the objectives of improving the genetic merit of the national herd and lowering the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions, it is vital that we not only identify the appropriate animals, but that we also incentivise their use in farmers' breeding strategies. This requirement, however, will be phased in over time. The requirement for farmers using stock bulls is that at least one of the bulls on the holding on 30 June 2019 must be a genotyped four- or five-star animal on either the terminal or replacement index. Where it is replaced in the following 12 months, it must be replaced by a bull of equivalent genetic merit. For those using artificial insemination, AI, at least 80% of that used must be from four- or five-star bulls on either the terminal or replacement index from 30 June 2016. Farmers renting bulls for breeding must, from 30 June 2016, use bulls that are four- or five-star on the terminal or replacement index, either within or across breed. Such farmers must, of course, inform the Department of their intention to use a rented bull and should ensure compliance with animal health and movement legislation, including a requirement for a pre-movement test for TB and bovine viral diarrhoea, BVD.

The requirement for female replacements is that, by the end of the scheme, the number of four- and five-star cows on a participating herds must be at least equal to 50% of the number of reference animals advised to the farmer at the start of the programme. For example, a farmer with 20 calved suckler cows in 2014 must have ten four- or five-star females by 31 October 2020. These animals must be at least 16 months old, to ensure they are being retained on farms, and must be four or five stars on the replacement index at the time of purchase, for heifers brought into the herd, or at the time of genotyping, for those replacements bred within the herd. There is also an intermediate target of 20% for 2018. A considerable amount of analysis has been undertaken to ascertain the availability of these female replacements in the coming years. Many farmers are already well on the way to meeting the requirement for four- and five-star animals. Analysis undertaken by ICBF of the 2014 beef genomics scheme has indicated that some 30% of herds are already compliant with the requirement for female animals in 2020, that is, that the number of four- and five-star heifers is equal to 50% of the reference animals on each farm. All farmers will receive comprehensive training, and ongoing information and advice to assist them in introducing the required breeding strategy. Of course, these requirements will take time to introduce and this is why a five-year lead-in time has been included in the design of the programme.

The fifth element is the carbon navigator, which is an online farm management package produced by Bord Bia and Teagasc. It quantifies the environmental gains that can be made on each applicant's farm by setting targets in key areas. It is a very useful and simple tool which allows individual farmers to look at changes which can be made on their farms, in areas such as the length of the grazing season or their average calving rate, and illustrates what that change would mean in terms of reduced greenhouse gas emissions from his or her herd and the increased profitability associated with such a change. The first completion of the carbon navigator must be undertaken in conjunction with an approved adviser, the cost of which will be covered separately under the rural development programme, RDP.

Participants must also submit data annually to allow for an update of the carbon navigator.

The final element of the programme is the training course to be delivered over the next 16 months or so. To deliver on the objectives of the BDGP and to work with each individual farmer to identify their breeding needs, it is vital that the participants receive dedicated training and advice. The four-hour training course will cover the individual requirements of the scheme; the importance of data collection and maternal breeding traits; the optimal use of breeding indexes; and the linkage between breeding and carbon efficiency at farm and national level. The cost of the training will be covered separately under the RDP and farmers will receive €166 to cover their costs of participation. Again, that will not cost the farmer anything.

The BDGP involves an investment of €300 million in addressing some of the key challenges facing the beef sector in Ireland. Some 30,000 farmers have applied for the scheme at this point and the programme is likely to be fully subscribed. I thank members for their time and patience, and I would be happy to provide any further detail of clarification they deem useful. If they need information that I do not have with me, I am happy to come back anytime.