Results 461-480 of 7,216 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I will put this on the record. I spoke to someone in England who has researched TB. Am I correct that the ICBF looked at the guts of 4 million cattle, dropped it down to 780,000 for the pedigree, then selected 144,000, of which 14,000 were bulls? Will ICBF tell me that under the new TB approach, I will not get TB?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Okay. Am I correct that with 300 herds at 50 a piece, we are almost free from TB? That is the Department's guide. Is that right or wrong?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: That is the figure that is used.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: There is no such thing as resistance, according to the people who have researched it, because stress causes TB, they can have a gene-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: The bottom line is that different cattle react in different ways. If you put stress onto cattle, some of them will show up with TB. Some of them might never show up with TB.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Going by when I looked at it-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I will tell you one thing. The people who have researched TB all their lives in England and Ireland have given me documents which strongly disagree with the system the ICBF is using.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I have more questions, but my time is up.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank Mr. Coughlan for that. On the new index, why were 24 of the top 50 replacement bulls on the suckler side awarded one star for carcass weight? Is that correct?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: They will say clearly that TB will never be eliminated completely.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: They did not sign up to take risks.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Percentage kill-out is not taken into account. Is that correct?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Is it taken into account?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: That is good to know because we get a lot of questions on the matter. Explain this. I was looking through some of the stuff and Kealkil Prime Lad is in the top 1% age of slaughter. He is a no grade - 293 kg at 691 days. Then there is a bull in the bottom 1% who is 102 kg more at kill-out at 676 days. How would that be if you were looking at better cattle?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Just quickly.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Tomschoice Lexicon was the bull.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Okay. I have another question and we have received phone calls on this. There are a lot of farmers with 50, 60 or 80 cows and one bull. They bought the bull in the last year. They have complied with BDGP and SCEP. They have run it to the letter of the law. They are now left in a situation where cows were brought down and the bull may have come down to two stars. The heifer is off...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I will get it for you. Do not worry; I will send it to you. There are farmers between the suckler side and the breeding side. This is the nub of the issue. How are we going to help them get through this with a bull that could have been worth €6,000 but is now worth €2,000? It depends on what they are worth for killing. What is the solution for that?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Sorry.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Whether SCEP or non-SCEP, everyone now is looking at the sheet. Would Mr. Coughlan agree?