Suckler sector in dire need of injection
WEST of Ireland farmers with an interest in the future of beef farming in the region have been urged to attend an IFA regional meeting in Ballinasloe next Monday night (October 1) that will focus on the theme of ‘saving our sucklers’.
The meeting will be addressed by a number of speakers including Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Denis Naughten; IFA President, Joe Healy; ICOS President, Michael Spelman; IFA National Livestock Chairman, Angus Woods; Joe Burke of Bord Bia; IFA economist, Dr. Edel Kelly and and Connacht IFA Regional Chairman, Padraic Joyce.
Chaired by Justin McCarthy, Editor of the Irish Farmers Journal, the meeting in the Shearwater Hotel will be attempting to increase pre-Budget pressure on the Government to introduce a meaningful support scheme to keep farmers in suckler farming, and especially those in the West of Ireland.
Galway IFA Regional Development Officer for the Galway/Mayo region, Roy O’Brien, told the Farming Tribune, that the suckler herd provided the foundation rock for the entire Irish beef trade, and if this was let slip at this juncture, it could have catastrophic consequences for the future of beef production in Ireland.
“Everyone in touch with farming over the past year or so, knows of people who are just pulling out of sucklers because the figures simply do not add up at the end of the day.
“This is not something that can be put on the long finger. First of all, we need to get our Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed, to grasp the urgency of this problem before things go too far. We are looking at the future of our entire beef industry in Ireland,” said Roy O’Brien.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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