Seanad debates

Tuesday, 25 February 2014

Adjournment Matters

Beef Industry Issues

6:20 pm

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

No policy around young male calves, particularly those born in the dairy sector, will provide any instant solution around getting a better price for beef. We can produce much more beef in Ireland, get a good price for it and sell it into markets, but it must be produced according to the spec customers want. Most farmers understand that but, unfortunately, some farmers in the bull beef category have been caught out because of a changing market in this area. We need to learn lessons from that. We will see less bull beef, more steers and more heifers in the future but there will be some specialist bull beef farmers who will produce for factories and they will negotiate spec with those factories. That is a profitable business. However, producing bull beef without knowing one has an outlet for that, and expecting to sell 24 or 26-month-old animals is a very challenging area. We need to get through this immediate problem. We need understanding from the factories on that regarding pricing and taking bull beef, but for next year and for future planning we need to learn the lessons from what has happened over the last few weeks.

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