Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 13 December 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion
However, that is due to the influence of the increased numbers of dairy beef animals, relative to suckler animals. I will give a few statistics on the suckler side, but I will start with the dairy and dairy-beef side. In the past five or six years, as the Deputy highlighted, they have dropped slightly in terms of carcass weights. Dairy-beef animals are down approximately 6 kg of carcass weight on average in the past few years and confirmations have probably dropped half a confirmation score. It is similar on the dairy side and perhaps even slightly more exaggerated on the dairy only animals. Critically, on the suckler side, the criticism that was made in 2015 was that we would breed a herd of suckler cows that would destroy beef quality. What has happened in the past ten, eight or seven years in the quality of animals coming from the suckler herd - to be clear these are progeny coming from beef cows, sired by beef sires - is that the carcass weights have increased by 15 kg. If we take the period 2010 to 2022, this has been a reasonably linear increase. From a confirmation point of view - that is a carcass quality point of view - the confirmation has increased by half a confirmation score. This is where suckler farmers do not get nearly enough credit; there are massive green credentials in this. Crucially, over that period, we have increased our carcass weights and the quality of our carcasses and the age at finishing has dropped by 100 days. That is a massive saving, financially for the beef industry, but also as regards our greenhouse gas credentials.