Pat O'Neill (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Cromie and Mr. Coughlan for coming before the committee. I found our previous meeting with them very informative. I will go over some of the issues raised by Deputy Fitzmaurice. I am participating in the scheme, and last year I bought 16 heifers as replacements before the scheme was introduced. They happened to be Black Angus, which is an Angus and Hereford cross, and when I received the ratings, 14 of them were five-star heifers and two were four-star heifers. This was because they are from a dairy herd. The witnesses can produce figures to state animals are more profitable if they come from dairy herds, given the milk rates, but I am concerned we will lose the Italian and Spanish trade because these animals will not breed E and U grade animals, which are required for the Italian market in particular. We may lose this trade because we will not have enough of them.

The Irish Cattle Breeding Federation's website states 17 traits are taken into account. We have a list of six here, which means there are 11 more traits. According to the list we have, weanling weight is the first trait, which can be established through the mart. Will people such as me, who do not sell weanlings but continue to slaughter, be asked to weigh animals? With regard to calving intervals, we all want a calf within 12 months because this is the ideal situation, but if farmers change the calving date from September to the following January for a cow which was a four-star or five-star animal, it may be downrated. Calving difficulties are very hard to rate. I still have to fill out my form about calving difficulties. We want everything right, but will somebody state he or she had to jack 10, 11 or 12 calves and one was harder than the other? This will be very difficult to establish. Establishing progeny carcass weight is fine for someone slaughtering animals in this country, but when animals are exported, is there a follow-up process when they go to feedlots in Italy or Spain? Do we have any way to establish an animal was slaughtered in Italy at 350 kg or 360 kg?

I am concerned about the dairy element. I have a number of five-star cows which are either Angus or Hereford crosses. My own cows, which are very good breeders, calve within 12 months, and produce a lot of milk and good calves, are only rated as one-star cows or two-star cows. I am concerned we will go too much towards a dairy element. I have a five-star bull, which I bought this year. If I cross him with the five-star heifer, the next breed will be half-Limousin. Will this animal have a five-star rating or will it go down to a four-star rating because the milk rate will drop because of not coming from a dairy herd? How many generations of breeding does it take to drop the rating of an animal?

We cannot establish docility. Nobody wants a wicked animal on the farm, whether a bull or a cow. This is about honesty.