WESTERN farm leaders have expressed alarm at reports that the Government could be considering a massive cull of the suckler cow herd to meet climate change targets over the coming years.

The reports are based on documents released to the Irish Times newspaper under the Freedom of Information Act outlining the possibility of introducing a €2 billion farm retirement package to achieve the culling targets.

According to the documents, the reduction target in the suckler herd would be 700,000 (70% of the national herd) with 300,000 dairy cows also to be culled.

Connacht IFA Chair, Pat Murphy, said that such reports which were obviously based on Dept. of Agriculture documents were extremely worrying for all farmers across the country but especially so for the West of Ireland.

“We don’t have the land in the West of Ireland that can support extensive grain farms or dairy enterprises. There are issues with land quality and fragmented holdings which means that many parts of the region are only suited to mixed cattle and sheep enterprises,” said Pat Murphy.

He added that the most galling aspect of all the talk of cuts in the national herd, was that huge beef producing countries like Brazil would immediately fill any gap in the market resulting from a reduction in the Irish national herd.

“We are very small players in the world market, and even if the most extreme measures as regards culling were put in place across Ireland, it wouldn’t make one iota of a difference to the overall  world emissions from agriculture.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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