The breeding policy in the dairy herd needs to be looked at, IFA presidential candidate John Coughlan said at the Irish Farmers Journal Around the Editor’s Table debate on Friday night.
“I rear all my calves to beef, everything that is produced on my farm is reared to beef. I do believe that we produce a very good dairy calf.
“Yes, we have gone the cross-breeding route and we do have to look back at the breeding policy to ensure that we do have a calf coming off the cow that can be taken to beef.
We need dairy farmers and beef farmers to rear calves, rear them properly
“There are markets there for them and I think that’s where we have to look as well – where our markets are and where we can expand our markets. Because we’ve seen quite clearly now that a lot of our calves go to Spain during the springtime.
“Those calves move on into north Africa later on in the year. We have that market, we have a Libyan market at the moment for 200kg Friesian bulls. We have to ensure that we can market our calves right through the year, which means that we need dairy farmers and beef farmers to rear calves, rear them properly and I think that any day that a calf is properly looked after and taken on, they are worth money,” he said.
Multiple options
Angus Woods said there have to be multiple solutions for dealing with extra dairy calves, but they need to be controlled and co-ordinated in a proper manner.
“You can’t just have ad-hoc pieces working here there and everywhere. Teagasc needs to up its game significantly in this. The type of calf being born needs to improve significantly.
“ICBF are doing work there on the dairy-beef index, you’re looking at sexed semen having a real point in case there too.
“I think dairy farmers are probably going to have to look at having the option, if required, of holding calves for a little bit longer in case of weather disturbance around the calving time and we need to maximise the volume of live exports,” he said.
John Coughlan, Tim Cullinan and Angus Woods.\ Philip Doyle.
Export markets
Tim Cullinan said there need to be multifaceted solutions to the issue.
“Initially we have to make sure we have an export market for the calves and there is demand for those calves in Holland and Italy and Spain and that is critical in the short-term.
“We do need to look at the breeding and I think we absolutely have to go down the sexed semen route and to make that efficient we need a lab in Ireland to deal with this.
“There needs to be an investment in the lab. The co-ops, I think farmers as well, have to get involved in this because, look, it is an issue we have to deal with. We can’t just leave it hanging out there.
“I mean we have had the massive expansion in the dairy industry and it looks as if now that the calf was forgotten about and every farmer now wants to calve his cows to go to grass and he’s right. It’s a 12-week period and that creates problems in itself,” he said.
Question: should we put a penalty on dairy farmers who don’t use the correct bulls? Should we ban the use of bulls with negative beef indices in the dairy herd?
In response to this, Coughlan said that all dairy farmers will need to be responsible for their calves.
“Farmers will get penalised themselves if they have to rear them [if they use bulls of poor beef value].
Question: do we support the slaughter of calves at two or three weeks of age?
Coughlan: “Not unless we have a market for it.”
Cullinan: “I believe it’s the wrong way to go.”
Woods: “The key here is our social licence. We can’t do anything that risks the social licence. Dairy co-ops have a significant role to play here in terms of leadership and guidance in terms of protecting that social licence. We can’t do anything that would impact on that.”
Read more
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The breeding policy in the dairy herd needs to be looked at, IFA presidential candidate John Coughlan said at the Irish Farmers Journal Around the Editor’s Table debate on Friday night.
“I rear all my calves to beef, everything that is produced on my farm is reared to beef. I do believe that we produce a very good dairy calf.
“Yes, we have gone the cross-breeding route and we do have to look back at the breeding policy to ensure that we do have a calf coming off the cow that can be taken to beef.
We need dairy farmers and beef farmers to rear calves, rear them properly
“There are markets there for them and I think that’s where we have to look as well – where our markets are and where we can expand our markets. Because we’ve seen quite clearly now that a lot of our calves go to Spain during the springtime.
“Those calves move on into north Africa later on in the year. We have that market, we have a Libyan market at the moment for 200kg Friesian bulls. We have to ensure that we can market our calves right through the year, which means that we need dairy farmers and beef farmers to rear calves, rear them properly and I think that any day that a calf is properly looked after and taken on, they are worth money,” he said.
Multiple options
Angus Woods said there have to be multiple solutions for dealing with extra dairy calves, but they need to be controlled and co-ordinated in a proper manner.
“You can’t just have ad-hoc pieces working here there and everywhere. Teagasc needs to up its game significantly in this. The type of calf being born needs to improve significantly.
“ICBF are doing work there on the dairy-beef index, you’re looking at sexed semen having a real point in case there too.
“I think dairy farmers are probably going to have to look at having the option, if required, of holding calves for a little bit longer in case of weather disturbance around the calving time and we need to maximise the volume of live exports,” he said.
John Coughlan, Tim Cullinan and Angus Woods.\ Philip Doyle.
Export markets
Tim Cullinan said there need to be multifaceted solutions to the issue.
“Initially we have to make sure we have an export market for the calves and there is demand for those calves in Holland and Italy and Spain and that is critical in the short-term.
“We do need to look at the breeding and I think we absolutely have to go down the sexed semen route and to make that efficient we need a lab in Ireland to deal with this.
“There needs to be an investment in the lab. The co-ops, I think farmers as well, have to get involved in this because, look, it is an issue we have to deal with. We can’t just leave it hanging out there.
“I mean we have had the massive expansion in the dairy industry and it looks as if now that the calf was forgotten about and every farmer now wants to calve his cows to go to grass and he’s right. It’s a 12-week period and that creates problems in itself,” he said.
Question: should we put a penalty on dairy farmers who don’t use the correct bulls? Should we ban the use of bulls with negative beef indices in the dairy herd?
In response to this, Coughlan said that all dairy farmers will need to be responsible for their calves.
“Farmers will get penalised themselves if they have to rear them [if they use bulls of poor beef value].
Question: do we support the slaughter of calves at two or three weeks of age?
Coughlan: “Not unless we have a market for it.”
Cullinan: “I believe it’s the wrong way to go.”
Woods: “The key here is our social licence. We can’t do anything that risks the social licence. Dairy co-ops have a significant role to play here in terms of leadership and guidance in terms of protecting that social licence. We can’t do anything that would impact on that.”
Read more
Watch back: IFA candidates take part in Irish Farmers Journal debate
IFA presidential debate: the candidates on 10 key farming questions
IFA presidential debate: what would the candidates do to tackle TB?
Paddy Power reveals favourite for IFA election
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