Ms Alison De Vere Hunt:

We have seen a huge decline in the quality of stock at the marts in recent years. One sees it year on year with calves. In terms of the suckler sales we have done, I have really noticed that a lot of buyers are buying sucklers to go into feed lots and to kill them a month later. These are cows that have another three or four years in them but people just cannot afford to keep them any more. Farmers are not being paid the premium that they should be getting for the quality of their stock.

We were the first mart in the country to implement the board, though a pilot scheme had been done and Kanturk and Thurles put star ratings on the board. I remember the first sale and the trend has been the same since. One animal had no stars but was beautiful and everyone asked about it. They did not want the ones with the stars and they were disappointed to learn the cow had none. She still topped the sale because we were only getting into the process. In sale after sale of sucklers, people have to buy the ones with three, four or five stars so that they meet the criteria but it is not working. We are going by the book and science is great but we need practicality.

Most farmers I know have been brought up, like myself, on a farm and they use their eyes to see. As I said to someone earlier, one wants to see something beautiful in person and not in a book. A farmer rang me about two months ago to complain that he had calves who did not make what he wanted and that he had made more last year. Last year they were out of a Friesian bull but this year they were from AI straws from an Angus bull. He could not understand and I said I would bet him his cow was a dairy cow. He said it was and I said that is the way it goes. He has the same stock as last year and it will not work.

There is a welfare issue because, in some cases, animals are getting a bit harder to handle. The old welfare suckler scheme was brilliant because calves were coming in weaned. If they were not weaned the seller was penalised but nothing is being looked at now. I could ask people in the mart if their animal had five stars and it could be the plainest animal in the place while a three-star or a no-star could be an absolute beauty, so it does not correlate for us. It is having an effect on the farmer's pocket and some are very disillusioned and upset at an animal being five-star last year but three-star this year. An animal with no Holstein now suddenly has Holstein and they cannot understand it. When they try to contact the ICBF they say nobody answers the phones or gets back to them.

We all want better genetics and a better quality stock but we need to go back to the drawing board. We need to go back to where the eye can see. Senator Mulherin suggested bringing Teagasc in but I would be very apprehensive about doing that. I am a graduate of the green cert myself but I am much happier with what I learned from growing up on a farm than from doing my green cert. I am very disappointed with the young farmers coming in at the moment. They are my own age but they see this as gospel, which is what they learn with Teagasc. We need to go back to something practical and this is something Teagasc does not need to be brought in on.

I agree, however, that the Department's welfare scheme should be brought back in as it is very important. Deputy Fitzmaurice mentioned the possibility of five-star animals going to Italy. That would be great but we are not going to have any left. The quality has become so poor and over 7,000 suckler animals left the system between 2010 and 2017. We need to start looking after our suckler farmer. It has been said that the west has not been affected and that is true, because the only other option there is forestry, and I do not want to appear flippant in saying that. I am from the heart of the Golden Vale, where dairy is big. Sucklers are big, albeit reducing, but we have other options. However, I have never seen a spring like it. I have seen dairy farmers in awful straits and we now have too many dairy cows. The abolition of the quota has put us on the floor and, having had a fodder crisis, it is time for us to tidy things up across the board - dairy, beef and tillage.

We cannot afford another year like this. I am also an auctioneer of property and much of the land we sell is not going back into crops, or even grass for stock. We are going to have fodder crisis after fodder crisis if we do not start giving a premium for our stock and bringing down our numbers. The quality is getting lower and the dangers are increasing. The stock coming into marts are milkier.