The recent increases in the suckler cow herd in Europe compared with the decline in the UK and Ireland merits closer attention.

Closer examination of the figures shows that the big increases have occurred in Spain with 32,000 more cows and France with a massive 114,000 increase. This comes against a background where Scottish followed by English, Welsh and NI prices have been typically been up to a euro per kilo ahead of Irish and indeed many EU countries over the past year. France and Spanish prices are currently 15c per kilo further back than Irish yet their suckler herd is expanding.

In their weekly bulletin, the Northern Ireland Livestock and Meat Commission suggests increasing demand for beef across the EU and the implementation of the Voluntary Coupled Support in the beef sector under the new CAP have been key factors behind an increase in suckler cow numbers. They report that there will be approximately €1.7bn of coupled support for the beef and veal sectors at EU level in 2015.

Looking at the basic numbers it is difficult not to see a relationship between direct suckler cow premium support and numbers that farmers keep. In France the first 40 cows command a direct payment of €178, reducing progressively as number of cows increase.

Looking at this scenario, could it be that direct payments, particularly targeted towards the suckler cow, had merit that we are only fully realising a decade after decoupling? Certainly with the debate that there has been around the definition of farmers and spread of entitlements across land, there seems to have been a case of targeting the cash directly to the point where it has most influence. Encouragement of suckler cows producing quality beef calves gives much added value along the chain. If a payment of say €200 per cow was made, farmers are encouraged to breed animals, marts have weanlings and store cattle to sell and we finish up with a beef animal worth €1,500 that goes into the processing system to add further value and employment which generates taxation revenue for government.

That is obviously how the French view it and maybe we should also consider it. It is too late for this CAP round but it is now how we need to be thinking about what we want to do next time round. Worth considering.