Within the 134 pages of comprehensive analysis produced by DAERA to support decisions made around future agricultural policy, 21 are dedicated to a suckler cow measure as part of a new beef sustainability package.

Previous estimates (not confirmed by DAERA) suggest a payment of £140 to £160 per head for heifers and mature suckler cows that meet a range of qualifying criteria.

As highlighted on page 15, on the back of responses from industry to their public consultation, DAERA has softened the eligibility requirements for the suckler payment.

Rather than calving heifers at under 30 months in the first year of a new scheme (27 months by year four), this has been changed to under 34 months (29 months by year four).

In addition, the requirement around calving interval (CI) has been revised, with payments made on individual suckler cows with a CI of 415 days in year one (moving to 385 days by year four).

This CI target remains very ambitious, and a maximum of 430 days would still drive significant positive change in the sector.

There are two key points to note.

The first is covered in the DAERA analysis and concerns the ability of a first-calved heifer to meet the CI criteria when calving for a second time.

Heifers can be slower to breed a second time. The DAERA analysis recognises this, and shows that 45% of these animals have a CI over 400 days.

The second point is that best practice in a suckler herd is to have a calving index (average CI across all cows) of 365 days.

There is inevitably a spread, and even in top performing herds around 20% of cows will have a CI over 385 days.

Start of calving

The only ways to potentially reduce that is to put the bull out earlier to bring the start of calving forward each year or have an extremely rigorous culling regime. Neither are good options.

The other alternative is that farmers keep extra animals just to maximise their payments, which would ultimately defeat the aim of the scheme.

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