The President of the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association Colm O’Donnell has pointed the finger of blame at the Minister for Agriculture for the gridlock on streets surrounding Dail Éireann and the Department of Agriculture offices.
The Minister he stated “has sat on his hands regarding the convening of the Beef Task-force which has led to further unrest," This unrest he added "is being fuelled by the refusal of C&D foods to withdraw their legal action against farmers who were exercising their legitimate right to protest.”

The Minister he continued “gave assurances to the Beef Task-force that all injunctions against individual farmers and associations would be lifted when all farmer protests ceased. Unfortunately the Minister has he not acted to ensure the agreement was honoured despite having executive powers at his disposal, which could sort out the injunctions at C&D foods.” This processing facility added the INHFA Leader “cannot operate without DAFM veterinary controls, which gives the Minister adequate leverage to ensure a satisfactory conclusion."

Concluding O’Donnell outlined how the INHFA position remains in full solidarity with the two farmers that are still dealing with these injunctions. We have he stated “not engaged with the Task-force to date and neither have we engaged in bi lateral talks held in recent weeks with Task-force stakeholders and the Chairman."

A delegation led by INHFA President is meeting EU Commission staff this coming week to discuss their proposals for support of our suckler sector. In outlining the difficulties our farmers have in accessing the limited supports available to the sector here in Ireland, National President Colm O’Donnell stated “how the meetings with commission officials will address this, as well as future direct supports for farmers and market access for suckler beef.”

With regard to the three support schemes currently in place, namely the BDGP, BEEP and BEAM the farm leader maintained that they are not delivering for our extensive suckler cow farming systems, as evident through the very low uptake. The conditionality required from these schemes has he added “discriminated against smaller herds on fragmented holdings that forms a major part of our suckler sector especially in western seaboard counties.”

Our meeting with the EU Commission will he continue “give us the opportunity to explain why these schemes are not working for the majority of suckler farmers as well as providing the opportunity to explore other support options for these farmers.”

In relation to existing and new markets O’Donnell stated “how suckler produced beef is a unique product in terms of quality and the manner in which it is reared. These differences will give it a marketing advantage with a consumer, who has become more demanding in terms of animal welfare and our environment. “

He concluded by adding how these meetings are a starting point in a campaign to deliver real support for our suckler farmers and called on all suckler farmers to support and work with us in delivering for the sector.

The Irish Natura & Hill Farmers Association are calling on the Taoiseach to honour the commitment he made in February 2018 to provide additional funding in order to protect the CAP budget. At the time An Taoiseach committed to increasing Ireland's contribution in line with an increase in contributions from all other member states. If implemented this would have seen an increase in member state contributions from the current rate of 1.1% of Gross National Income (GNI) up to 1.3% of GNI. This increase the organisation estimates would for Ireland amount to €550m each year.

In addressing this National President Colm O’Donnell stated “how this proposal is unlikely to now happen in light of a major reluctance from some EU countries. But this commitment was made which would indicate that the Government were willing to provide substantial funding towards CAP and as we move towards a new CAP Programme it is vital that this promised funding is not forgotten.”

The new CAP Programme as currently proposed will stated O’Donnell “see cuts of almost 4% to Pillar 1 and over 15% to the Rural Development Programme (RDP) through Pillar 2.” The cuts to the RDP which is co-funded by the EU and Government will he added “see an overall cut for the duration of the next CAP Programme (2021 to 27) of €700m. If applied this will have a major impact on the ANC, TAMS and any new Agri-environmental scheme which are all schemes that many smaller farmers are dependent on.
With both our suckler and sheep sectors in crisis the impact of cuts such as this would stated O’Donnell “wipe out farming in many areas and create a knock-on effect in these communities.” Fortunately he continued “our Government have the option to fund the RDP at a much higher rate than it currently does (52/48) and thankfully our Taoiseach has promised the funding to do so.”

By just using €350m per year of the €550m promised we could he added “increase the ANC budget by another €50m and deliver a payment to farmers of up to €5,000. We could double the payment rates on the sheep welfare scheme and deliver a suckler cow payment of €200 per cow.”

In addition to this we could he stated “increase the TAMS budget and deliver a payment of up to €10,000 on a new Agri-environmental scheme.

He concluded by emphasising how this additional funding can benefit our farmers, their communities and the state and should be seen in this context.

INHFA President Colm O'Donnell has called into question the sustainability of the dairy expansion in light of a pending animal welfare crisis this spring. In discussing the concerns outlined by advisors and members of the farming industry relating to the expected births of over 750,000 dairy bull calves that nobody wants, the INHFA President stated how "he is deeply concerned that there doesn't seem to be a plan on how to manage this."

Since the abolition of milk quotas, he stated "we have seen a massive increase in the dairy herd and while those of us not involved assumed that all aspects of this were thought through, it would appear that this is not what has happened. Recent reports that our state advisory service who were encouraging this expansion hadn't factored in how they would deal with the increasing number of dairy calves is appalling. It also raises the question that if they miss something as basic as this then what else have they missed. There are also uncomfortable questions for many of our co-ops, our lending institutions and the Government. All of these facilitated and encouraged farmers to expand and should not now be allowed walk away from the mess they created."

In addressing the possible impact this expansion will have on other sectors, O"Donnell outlined how it has already impacted on our suckler industry by delivering a surplus of beef which has undermined price. For those supplying lamb there is he stated " the concern that as beef price falls the price of lamb will follow it down. However the greatest concern for all of us is the possibility of an animal welfare crisis around the 750,000 dairy bull calves that will be born this spring and the dire impact that this could have for all farmers supplying meat and dairy products."

A taskforce to tackle ongoing differences between sheep producers and processors around pricing, weight limits and the sourcing of lambs has been called for by the INHFA.

The hill farmer body accused processors of attempting to put a ceiling on sheep prices by imposing strict weight limits on lambs supplies for slaughter. Most factories are just paying up 21.5kgs, but further penalties have been imposed.

Farmers report penalties of up 50c/kg being levied by some plants on lambs over 25kgs. These heavy lambs were being bought last week for €3.90-4.00/kg, with this price paid to a maximum of 21.5kgs. As a consequence, stock over 25/kg made just €86/hd, when the same animals could have made a base of €112/hd if €4.50kg was paid on their full weight.
The processors insist that there is no market for heavy lamb and that farmers must slaughter stock at the correct weights.

However, INHFA president, Colm O'Donnell, said the strict weight limits policy being operated by the factories was essentially a mechanism to cap lamb prices at under €100/hd.
He said the measure was prompting "growing anger amongst farmers". Mr O'Donnell said a task force along the lines of the beef task force - which has yet to meet - was "urgently required" for the sheep sector.