Results 6,481-6,500 of 7,793 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Sep 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: On sheep, does Enterprise Ireland have any workings or research done in collaboration with Bord Bia on sheep's wool? This is a big problem.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Sep 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: The problem is that sheep's wool is worth nothing.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Sep 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: It costs more to shear the sheep than what will be got for selling the wool. We are just wondering if research might be ongoing that we could avail of. I know Enterprise Ireland cannot do this research, but I am just wondering if the organisation is collaborating with Bord Bia or the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in research on insulation materials, for example? I refer to...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Sep 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Very good. I thank Mr. Christal very much.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Sep 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank the witnesses for attending. They will be aware of major problems in Australia as regards sheep numbers, with farmers even getting rid of them. As has rightly been pointed out, the EU did a trade deal when the UK was still with us. Obviously, the UK is now bringing in its own meat while leaving us with the surplus of lamb coming into Europe from those countries. This situation...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Sep 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: In their dealings with factories, farmers are penalised for underweight lambs.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Sep 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Factories give farmers nothing for overweight lambs.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Sep 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: You would want to be pretty good with a weighing scale. Is there any-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Sep 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I believe there was one factory that was going with a higher weight. Generally, when sheep get tight – maybe on the hogget side – factories can go a bit higher. In the ICSA negotiations with the factories, can that be changed to go to 23 kg? What is the thinking behind it?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Sep 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: To broaden it out to the dairy side, if the weather in winter is middling and grass is plentiful, cows might have to go in and many farmers would buy store lambs. With the new nitrates rules, can the witnesses envisage a problem in that regard? Store lamb is a bad trade at the moment, to put it simply. Is it the knock-on effect that the dairy men have the banding and the new nitrates rules...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Sep 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: For the ones who do buy them, is there a problem arising there with more focus on nitrates?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Sep 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Why do the witnesses think the store lamb is-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Sep 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: There was also confusion about the lie-back and fencing that was causing-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Sep 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I even got calls from County Louth about it. There would be the lie-back and the farmers would not be able to do what they always did even though-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Sep 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: That is correct.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Sep 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I understood that was to change.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Sep 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I refer to the trend last year in the lamb trade. We bought store lambs ourselves at home. They were worth no more in February or March than they were when we bought them. You would nearly lose money on them. The next thing was that Ramadan came along and they could not get enough lambs. In fairness, a good price was paid for them-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Sep 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: With hoggets, for example.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Sep 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Are we all going out the one gap at the one time? It is the same with calves. Many calves are born in the first three months of the year. The factories know damn well they are going to have a glut when the calves reach 30 months in September. Is the same thing happening with sheep? I understand the farmer cannot go all year around or anything, but a lot of lambs are coming at the one...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Sep 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: It is too costly for early lambs.