Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 3 July 2024
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Statement of Strategy 2023-2026: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
5:30 pm
Mr. Bill Callanan:
If I could answer this, with regard to the output looking at some of the indicators out there, the Secretary General identified the output is down. The Senator is entirely correct. However, the dairy herd population is not down. Output per cow has reduced. If I look at other areas, for example we have been reducing the age of slaughter of beef animals in this country by approximately a week per year every year, in line with our climate action plans but not last year. We went back up slightly. That is an indication of weather impact in the beef sector, which I assume is similarly responsible in terms of the dairy output reduction, so in combination-----