The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association (ICSA) has called on Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue to address “the complete imbalance” in the board make-up of Teagasc, Bord Bia and the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF).

ICSA president Dermot Kelleher said there was insufficient drystock and tillage farmers on these State boards and that this needed to be addressed by Minister McConalogue.

He pointed out that there were five dairy farmers on the Teagasc board, but no dedicated suckler, sheep or beef farmer representative.

“There is no dedicated beef or sheep farmer on the board of Bord Bia, and the ICBF board is very much tilted in favour of dairying as well,” Mr Kelleher pointed out.

“We have some 17,000 dairy farmers in Ireland. They are entitled to be heard. But are the other 110,000 farmers not entitled to a say,” the ICSA leader asked.

'Dairy dominance'

Mr Kelleher said there was a “dairy dominance in decision making” in Irish farming, which emerged in “some Department proposals” and was “embedded in the governance structures of our most important State agricultural bodies”.

“I am calling on Minister McConalogue to get to grips with this as soon as possible and make sure we have farm sector balance on the boards of Teagasc, Bord Bia and the ICBF,” he demanded.

“Suckler, sheep, beef and tillage farmers are frustrated that so much of the narrative seems to suit the dairy expansion model.

"The recent comments by Professor Gerry Boyle, which he apologised for in fairness, were symptomatic nonetheless of a wider viewpoint that suckler farmers should get out of the way and facilitate further dairy expansion,” Mr Kelleher said.

“Some people believe that suckler farmers should sell their cows and get to work rearing the dairy calves,” he added.

CAP reform

“This issue is hotting up, not least because of the climate change targets which will soon become clearer, and also in the context of CAP reform.

"CAP supports are most urgently needed by the low-income sectors, yet there is a clear reluctance to do anything to upset the dairy lobby,” he claimed.

Mr Kelleher said beef farmers were “furious” that there was a suggestion that the suckler herd should be capped, when it was clear that dairy expansion was continuing unabated.

“[The] ICSA is not against farmers getting into dairying or against farmers growing their dairy herds.

"But there also has to be some sense of balance and we need to look at the entire Irish agricultural model in a more holistic way.

“Every decision made on a dairy farm has obvious knock-on consequences for the beef sector, yet we had the extraordinary admission that Moorepark never thought about the bull calves when designing the dairy expansion model.”