Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The objective of the suckler carbon efficiency programme, SCEP, is to provide support to suckler and beef farmers to improve the environmental sustainability of the national beef herd. The programme aims to build on the gains already delivered through the beef data and genomics programme, which finished in December, and the beef environmental efficiency programme by improving the genetic merit of the herd.

I am confident SCEP will drive further improvements in what are already world-class suckler and beef herds. At the moment there are 3,513 participants in SCEP who have reference animals of ten or fewer. This equates to 16.9% of the total applicants who applied for SCEP.

There is a challenge there for some smaller herds in particular. They tend to be cases where they are not dependent on that income, are not full time and when there are fewer than ten in the herd. Often there is off-farm income involved as well where there is a suckler herd of fewer than ten. Therefore, take-up of schemes, not just SCEP, can sometimes be less for a smallholding like that than it is for a larger holding that is more dependent on that income. The scheme is open to everyone and the terms and conditions are the same. Sometimes it is not attractive to those with fewer numbers than it is for those who might have more than ten, 20 or 30 in a herd.

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