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Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed said the dairy sector cannot absolve itself of responsibility for the growing number of calves coming into the beef system.
He cited the manner in which extra calves were undermining the profitability of the beef sector and potential welfare issues that may arise as two major concerns.
Speaking at the ICSA AGM, Minister Creed said there was a big problem with the quality of some dairy calves and that farmers needed to know what they were buying.
Someone goes into a mart today and thinks he’s buying an Aberdeen Angus cross and it ends up a dairy or Jersey cross that’s really not acceptable
Addressing a number of questions from the crowd on the subject, Creed said: “I have been accosted at international level by people who buy Irish calves who gave out about what they bought and what they thought they bought.”
DNA testing
In addition to the newly launched dairy beef index, he said work was ongoing around DNA testing of calves so that both exporters and those in the dairy beef sector knew what they were buying.
“Someone goes into a mart today and thinks he’s buying an Aberdeen Angus cross and it ends up a dairy or Jersey cross that’s really not acceptable.”
He said it was a challenge at present to turn around the data in a time frame that didn’t comprise calf health or welfare but there were efforts under way to reduce the wait time.
Live exports
The importance of live exports in addressing the problem was also highlighted. A recent Oireachtas committee meeting said hopes were rising that ferry and lairage capacity could rise to 80,000 calves per month by March.
However, Minister Creed said Ireland was running flat out to stand still due to the growth in the dairy herd.
Plans are under way for further trade missions in the coming months that have an emphasis on the live export of weanlings. While there are no definitive dates or destinations in place yet, North Africa and Turkey are the primary areas of concern for the Minister.
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