The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has criticised the €25m in funding allocated to the Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme.

Its president Denis Drennan stated that the 65% of the national beef output coming from dairy-beef justifies more funding and he referred to the allocation to the new scheme as being "pathetic".

The farm leader contrasted the €6.5m yearly spend on dairy-beef with the organics and forestry sectors, which get a respective eight and 16 times of this amount annually.

Drennan argued that dairy-beef systems are “very climate efficient” and can reduce age at slaughter, which has been identified by Government as a key measure in cutting emissions from beef.

Action plan criticism

He also criticised the recently-published 10-point action plan on dairy-beef as an example of a “seriously flawed top-down approach” where the Department of Agriculture and State agencies drafted the plan before engaging in a “token” stakeholder consultation.

“Ireland has an opportunity to develop a global-leading dairy-beef production system delivering considerable net foreign earnings for the exchequer and the national economy, while lowering emissions towards our targets and we need to see the Government take that seriously and fund accordingly,” Drennan commented.

ICMSA's calls

The ICMSA’s calls on dairy-beef are a €100 payment for the calf rearer and another €100 in supports for the finisher.

The previous dairy-beef scheme had paid farmers for weighing dairy-beef calves, but the new scheme shifts funding to dairy farmers for breeding higher-quality calves.

Drennan added that the association is looking for bulls rated three stars or higher on the dairy beef index to be made eligible for the scheme, even if they do not meet the condition of having at least three stars on the beef sub-index.

A bull must meet both conditions to sire calves eligible for the €20/calf payment under the Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme.

He added that bulls rated three stars over 2024 should remain eligible for the scheme if their star ratings drop.