“Immediate” direct supports for beef and sheep farmers are needed to save these industries from financial ruin, the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) has said.

These supports should be based on farmers’ levels of production to compensate them for the ongoing increases in feed, fertiliser and fuel costs, according to IFA livestock chair Brendan Golden.

“These supports must be paid directly to farmers based on their level of production,” said Golden.

“Any disruption to the beef trade will have devastating consequences for these farmers,” he continued.

Direct payments

Direct payments would allow for supplies of cattle to keep moving as normal throughout the year and prevent a glut of finished animals or stores from entering the system at the one time, Golden claimed.

“There is a real concern the trade of beef animals will be severely disrupted, and in turn our supply chain for beef, if there is a failure to put guarantees in place for farmers who are producing beef for this autumn and next spring,” he said.

Sheep sector

Meanwhile, it is expected that the increase in the cost of baling silage will hit sheep farmers particularly hard, said IFA sheep chair Kevin Comiskey in his calls for direct payments.

Direst aid would also allow hill farmers and those who sell lambs as stores to have a market at the end of the summer, maintained the sheep chair.

High input costs leave less grass available for the grazing of stores on lowland farms to graze, reducing demand for stores in the back end if additional supports are not delivered to farmers, he said.

Increased forage production

Both the sheep and livestock chairs called for the removal of restrictions imposed on farmers through regulation and the conditions of scheme entry to be examined to ensure grass growth is maintained as the costs of production continue to spiral.

Examples of the restrictions on farmers that were referenced in Golden’s remarks included the wild bird cover, traditional hay meadow and low input permanent pasture options of the Green Low-Carbon Agri-Environmental Scheme (GLAS).

“Sheep farmers must be allowed use all lands at their disposal to produce food,” added Comiskey in his comments.