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

What is coming down the line looks dark. The reason for that is farmers are not making money out of it. While I notice with regard to docility that they are 4% quieter, the number of farmers killed by cows in recent years has gone up, whatever about the docility coming down.

We are talking about an increase of ten or 11 days for the calf. I have spoken to farmers about the reasons. I know farmers who let cows run. They used always to calve in March but they let them run into the following July for the simple reason that they might have sheep lambing in the spring. There are a host of different reasons.

On the issue of calves that are exported out of the country, while it is known when they are born, if somebody sells to one of the shippers without going through a mart, is there any trace of those calves? What percentage of the beef herd do the witnesses have accurate statistics on from the day they are born to the day they are slaughtered? I note that the witnesses have acknowledged that the carcass weight is coming down. They said that is because they are younger cattle. If an animal has the frame, its weight will be the same whether it is killed a month earlier or a month later. It is as simple as that. Nobody should cod themselves about it if the animal is finished and it has the shape. I note the R grades on the quality of cattle being killed. The weight is coming down. We have to remember that it was 2014 or 2015 when we started this new system. It is only last year and now that we are getting the first of them that were killed because most of them are between 24 and 30 months. We are only getting the first hit at it now. This slide in carcass weights will continue as we keep going down this road. The witnesses need to work with all the different groups involved.

On the dairy animal, everyone here knows the farmer's nature. If I have a cow that has no milk, I will get rid of her because she will not rear the calf. If I have a cow that is producing a bad calf, I will get rid of her. A farmer is not a jackass who will keep something to look at it all of its life. He will get rid of it. He will pick the cow that has a fairly good udder that will finish a calf quite well but that will, above all, produce a calf that will pull the scales down. However, I have seen a problem this year. Take a look at the dairy herd. The Angus calf this year is not worth as much. An Angus calf is a good calf and grows into a good cow. I am not criticising them. However, I watch the marts around the country. The reason is that the person who bought the calf continued it on so it is not pulling scales down and not leaving the money. That is a problem.

We must have balance. Genomics is needed. There is great success in milk, as I said earlier. Cows are milking well. We must balance, however, between what will work in the factory and what we need to get on the boat to other countries. We have lost some countries at present such as Italy and Belgium. We have lost a lot of that as a country. We must produce what I would call the shapely animal from the suckler herd and we can also concentrate on the other animal that will work 100% in the factory. Nobody is saying it will not work in the factory. I have looked at the figures for the calves from the five-star cows. I would like to drill down into those figures. It was approximately 11,000 with €1,098 for one and €1,101 for the other. What are we looking at? I would like to have that explained. I will be straight about it. A lesser quality cow might have more milk but milk will not put shape on an animal. It either has the frame or it does not have it.

If one listens to the mart managers, we have a problem with safety as well. We must ensure that we are weaning calves in the way it was done and getting them on meal before they go into a mart so they are not crying and bawling in the mart and so they do not get pneumonia when the next person gets them. We need to give incentives for the suckler herd, to give it a premium and protect the herd. To be honest, the witnesses will only be dealing with dairy shortly. As was pointed out earlier, the farmer might have a choice on good land in Tipperary or the south of the country. There is some good land in the west - I am not saying it is all bad - but many people have sheep on marginal land and suckler cows, but we are vastly running out of the suckler cows. I am watching it day in, day out. The main road from Mayo to Kepak is at the front of my house and the number of cows being brought on that road is frightening. It was denied six months ago when I said it. I was ballyragged about it, but what I said has come to pass. If one is listening to farmers, that message is clear. We have to start listening to them.

Yes, I believe in genomics. I am not saying we are against trying things out, but we do not have the data and we never will have them. Let us say I buy an animal from one of the witnesses. It is a good calf and the witness pampered him all the way. I put him into a field and leave him to wander around. He was on meal but I have left him on no meal. It will be a totally different ballgame from the situation where a person puts him into a feedlot and feeds the living daylights out of him. It has now been proved, and the witnesses can contradict me if I am wrong, that producing some of these cattle at 16 months does not pay. The research has been done and it proves that. It does not pay for the farmer. Ultimately, what we and the witnesses must do is get a profitable set-up for farmers. That means not dazzling us with brilliant figures but living in the real world.

I have travelled to many marts and I worked in a mart as a youngster. If anyone has the U shape and the Charolais coloured cattle in a ring, I defy anybody to tell me that they will not make €300 more than any other cattle.