Beef farmers should contract rear dairy calves – ICSA

Having beef farmers contract-rear dairy bull calves is the only solution to the current oversupply dilemma, according to Edmund Graham, Irish Cattle & Sheep Farmers' Association (ICSA) beef chair. He also said that the organisation would be totally opposed to CAP or state funds to subsidise dairy farmers.

“This problem cannot be resolved by transferring the risk to beef farmers who are already at breaking point,” said Graham.

"It is futile to think that beef farmers can be expected to buy calves at a beef price of €3.45/kg and take all the cost and risk of rearing them for two years.”

Contract rearing

Graham believes that giving beef farmers a subsidy to buy dairy calves will not work because it will simply flow back into the calf price and thereby is a further support for dairy farmers, while subsidising home rearing would undermine live exports as the two would be in direct competition. “The admission by the head of Teagasc Moorepark that they never thought about the bull calves is shocking. It demonstrates that the foundations of farm economic analysis is seriously flawed" said Graham.

“It is clear now that dairy expansion can only be done with dairy farmers being responsible for male calves as well as female calves. This can be done by paying beef farmers to contract rear them. It will also come with the added benefit of making dairy farmers properly cost the impact of their breeding decisions and will reward the dairy farmer who chooses to follow a more balanced breeding programme. It might also bring a more nuanced assessment of whether milk price is too low to be sustainable.”