IFA National Livestock chairperson Declan Hanrahan has said that following the Budget announcement by the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue, supports for next year for suckler cows have been increased up to €225/cow, and funding has been provided for a dairy beef calf scheme.
Mr Hanrahan said the national exchequer funding of €28m provided for the Beef Welfare Scheme for 2025 represents an increase of €8m for the scheme, which will bring payments under this scheme to €75/suckler cow, and when combined with the SCEP scheme, returns up to €225 per cow for next year.
He said the increase in payments of €25/cow is a recognition of IFA’s ongoing campaign to secure €300/cow for suckler farmers and is a step in the right direction, but that more will need to be done.
The IFA National Livestock Chair said the substantive issue now is to ensure there is no leakages of this vital additional support for suckler farmers and the requirements in the scheme must be practical, easy to implement on farms, and not add any unnecessary cost or bureaucracy for suckler farmers.
Mr Hanrahan said this year’s Beef Welfare Scheme was a practical and beneficial scheme for suckler farmers and that the scheme for next year must follow a similar vein, but must have the ceiling of forty cows removed to ensure all suckler farmers are supported equally based on the numbers of cows they have.
He said the increased funding announced for the Dairy Beef Scheme must be utilised to provide a scheme for farmers rearing dairy beef calves, and said failure to provide a scheme for this purpose this year was a mistake which must be addressed with the additional funding for next year.
