Budget must tackle the imbalance in farm income across the sectors

ICSA president Dermot Kelleher has said the imbalance in farm incomes across the sectors must inform key Budget 2024 decisions in favour of low-income beef, sheep, and suckler farmers at a meeting today with Minister Charlie McConalogue in Dublin. “ICSA is seeking a sheep payment worth €35/ewe, a beef carbon efficiency payment worth up to €100/hd, and an ongoing, long-term, commitment to supporting the suckler sector through the SCEP scheme.” he said.

“In 2022 we saw huge disparities between farm incomes per hectare across the various sectors with dairy farm incomes six or seven times higher per hectare than suckler or sheep incomes, and almost five times greater than beef incomes. This clearly demonstrates the need for radical change in favour of the less intensive and lower income cattle and sheep sectors. Today, we urged the Minister to do the right thing by our beef, sheep, and suckler farmers. These are low-income farmers who urgently need budget supports as the challenges around achieving economic sustainability and improving environmental sustainability mount.”

Outlining ICSA’s key Budget 2024 demands, Mr Kelleher said the latter part of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 saw a very anomalous situation for the sheep sector whereby sheep prices were actually lower than the previous two years. “This was despite the massive increases in input costs which sheep farmers could not afford to shoulder alone. ICSA is therefore insisting that a key priority for the budget must be to substantially improve the level of support for the sheep sector above the €12/ewe available under the Sheep Improvement Scheme which is not fit for purpose in a financial sense.

ICSA has proposed an emergency package to support a short-term payment of €20/ewe in 2023. However, the Government must show ambition to deliver up to €35/ewe, including support for wool, and this must commence with budget 2024. ICSA argues that the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR) should be used. We cannot accept that the case cannot be made to use BAR given that it has been used for genotyping the dairy herd and for the organic sector.”

“Likewise, the beef finishing sector is facing an extremely difficult future. The traditional beef finishing operation has been decimated by convergence, but it is a crucial link in delivering the €2.5bn worth of beef exports, and it is an essential cog in utilising calves not destined for replacement in the dairy and suckler herds. Without the beef finishing sector, the dairy herd is simply not sustainable. ICSA has proposed a beef carbon efficiency payment worth up to €100/hd for feeding and weighing animals between 12-24 months with the target of early finishing, to a maximum 150 animals.”

Mr Kelleher also sought assurances from the Minister that greater levels of funding would be channelled into the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) to cover the next five years. “Budget 2024 must provide certainty for suckler farmers regarding this scheme. If the suckler sector is not supported to a greater extent, the consequence will be a further move to dairy farming.

“This will include suckler farms converting to dairying but also supporting further expansion of existing dairy herds via contract rearing or land leasing. In both cases, the inevitable outcome is more intensification, and this will add further pressure on climate and water quality. Therefore, if the Government is serious about the environmental issues the sector must be supported to ensure it stabilises at current numbers.

“The suckler scheme (SCEP) in the new CAP delivers €150/cow for the first ten cows and €120/cow thereafter. Budget 23 added a further €28 million for a scheme for meal feeding and IBR testing. ICSA submits that this scheme needs to be continued and enhanced with additional measures for 2024-27.

“We propose that a scheme that includes myostatin testing and animal welfare protocols around weaning and dehorning should be implemented and that this scheme should have funding of €40 million to maintain, at a minimum, the level of support under the BEEP scheme. Crucially, ICSA is insisting that there should be no capping of the suckler herd at an individual farmer basis.”

Funding is required to support the strategy being agreed by the Deer Forum, with a view to controlling the deer population as part of the TB strategy but also for other conservation, forestry, and public safety objectives. As a starting point, €1 million will be required to appoint a programme manager and co-ordinating staff and following on from that will be a requirement to fund the deer culling.