As revealed back in June, beef facilities at AFBI Hillsborough have fallen into such a state of disrepair that they can no longer be used for research.

It has been known for a number of years that cattle accommodation at Hillsborough has been in need of urgent attention, and for much of the last decade staff have been working on proposals for new facilities.

That involves a tie-up with the Abbey Farm at CAFRE Greenmount, where all suckler cows would be retained, with young cattle from Greenmount going to Hillsborough for finishing. So investment is required at both sites.

That potentially costs a lot of money, and it is understandable that Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots is giving it careful consideration before sign-off. A new dairy unit at Greenmount, opened in 2013, cost £2.5m, and a new sheep house at the Greenmount hill farm at Glenwherry cost £825,000, so the total bill for new beef facilities is likely to be well over £10m.

But if the new facilities aren’t forthcoming, what message does that send?

While that seems like a high cost, government rules in NI require civil service bodies to work through Construction and Procurement Delivery (CPD) within the Department of Finance, who charge for their time managing a project. A farmer could build similar sheds for significantly less.

But if the new facilities aren’t forthcoming, what message does that send? There are big challenges ahead for the NI beef industry around ammonia, carbon and methane emissions.

Are we going to rely on data from elsewhere? And without a local research base, how are we going to develop future advisers and researchers who can drive change in our industry?

Of course the industry at farm level often struggles to be profitable, but we must not forget that nearly 60% of farms in NI have suckler cows, over 70% keep beef cattle and redmeat processing is our largest agri-food sector, supporting over 5,000 local jobs. In addition, the majority of our land type is best-suited to beef production. It defies logic that this issue has been dragging on for so long.

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