Paraic Brady (Fine Gael)

I wish to raise an issue of caution for our farming community. We have seen record prices being paid for cattle over recent months. Last week, we saw a springer heifer in my local area making €15,500 at Carrigallen mart. I caution the farming community that everything has a ceiling, and everything has a price and a fail value. There are a number of sales coming up, and there seems to be panic among farmers that they must meet targets to match up with the ICBF star rating. However, and this is where I have a concern, somewhere along the line you have to look at the cost of your produce, what you are buying in and the cost of what you are losing in your scheme. It might be advisable to take the penalty from the Department rather than investing in high-cost stock. We see heifers now being sold for €7,000, and upwards, on average. If it is only one animal you are losing, you are losing €300. I caution the farming community that certainly they need to look at that in the context of an investment of €7,000 or more. They need to sit down and look at the books to assess what return will be made on such an investment. There is a fear right now that farmers have lost control of spending when prices are good. I urge caution on that.