Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. The questions about the board will be answered when representatives of the ICBF come before us later. We need to make sure to keep most farming going, as best as we can. However, if a farmer in the west of Ireland buys the first heifer out of a dairy herd, he or she will have to breed again a second time to get back into the suckler side of things. That has been taught to farmers over generations. However, the problem is that we are trying to feed two masters. If we want to send cattle to Italy and if we want to send U grade cattle, it will not be five star because of the way the beef genomics scheme is set up. In fairness, in the milk sector, it has been a great success. The science has resulted in good cows milking well and no one is disputing that. We are dealing with a different set up now. The Italians and other overseas customers want U grade animals. However, it is not possible to get that with a narrow arsed animal. If one has a good Simmental, Charolais or even a Limousin cow and crosses it with a Charolais, one will get that type of animal. Our worry is that we are seeing an alarming amount of suckler cows going, for all different reasons. We had problems with weather and fodder and we have a problem with price. The latter is our biggest problem.

Ms De Vere Hunt is located in the middle of the country where there is both dairy and suckler cattle. The problem is that the cattle we are breeding out of the five stars - I have seen them at marts in Castlereagh, Elfin and Tuam - are not going to make what a good Charolais or a good U grade animal is going to make, whether we like it or not. The system is based on ease of calving but the weanlings are exported so we do not have the data on them. Even in Ireland, if a farmer sells a weanling to a good farmer who drives it on, that goes up as being better in the rating. However, if it goes to a farmer who has 40 acres, who throws a blast of them into it and does not bother getting meal going and lets them go over age, then they are going to reduce. It is not accurate data, in my opinion, and it is hard to compile accurate data.

If one takes the factory kills, which I watched last year, we are sending in more cattle to hit the same target weights that we hit before and there is a problem. Whether one likes it or not, if one has an orange Charolais that is below, there is €300 in the difference. It may have been harder calved, I do not know or the cow may not have as much milk. We are going to get statistics later on fertility in terms of cows having calves every year but to be blunt about it, one could nearly leave her without a calf every four years and one would end up with the same money. This is the dilemma we face.

As Deputy Cahill pointed out, at the moment in the factories one will get €3.90 or €4 for some strippers or cull cows because there is a shortage of cattle. However, if there is plenty of cattle around, the factories will pick and choose and then farmers will know what they will get for lower quality animals. We have to watch our live export trade because if we lose that, we are in trouble. The suckler herd is under enough pressure as it is but if we lose our live export trade and concentrate more on supplying the factories here, there will be no way to keep manners on those factories in terms of price. We are trying to balance two balls here. We are trying to make sure that cows will calve. One must try to make sure that one does not have a cow one is pulling the whole time. One must make sure that one has a certain amount of milk but one will be told then that the calf reached a particular target.

I have seen cows from a Charolais or Simmental background which milk just as well as any other cow. We must make sure we are producing U grade cattle, particularly in the suckler herd. It is fine to take stock from the dairy herd because they are specifically designed to produce milk. The quality of the animals may not be as good but they will be five star because they have the milk and they will calf an Angus, for example. One can feed them, they can go to a factory and they are sound and no one is saying otherwise. They are for a different line, however. One will bring them home and feed them milk or powder, drive them on with meal and after two years or 30 months, one will kill them. On the other hand, the suckler herd is aimed at a few different markets and the export market is the big one. If one is producing good export animals - U-grade calves - that are ready in August or September, one will get top dollar for them. One will make the best margin in that scenario, rather than taking €600 to €800 for a bit of a weanling that one might throw out on the ground, that would be sound as a bell and that would milk well but when it comes to the ring, the farmer will not get the money. The cow costs as much to feed as what one gets when one sells her. Profit margin is a problem from day 1 with the suckler herd too.