Beef star scheme ‘farce’

THE current Beef Genomics programme should be scrapped and a ¤200 payment per suckler cow brought in to reverse the damage done to the beef industry.

That’s according to Cllr Michael Clarke, who gained widespread support for his motion on the issue last week.

He began by saying that both his family and Cllr Sinead Maguire’s family had been exporting weanlings to the European market for a long time.

“It’s a huge industry worth over ¤10million a year to the Irish Government. Breeding is a craft.

“We have the best suckler herd in the world here, supporting the marts in Manorhamilton. To categorise the cows with stars - it has no judgement on their breeding. It’s just a star system to secure grants and has a huge effect on the quality of the herd,” he told the meeting.

He called for a ¤200 payment per suckler cow to “ensure we are providing food to the Irish consumer at the best rate.”

Cllr Clarke said he was very disappointed that the IFA and the Hill Farmer’s Association hadn’t lobbied harder and warned the system would collapse eventually.

Cllr Margaret Gormley said there were cows getting one star that were “far better than a cow with five stars.”

She agreed with Cllr Clarke that a ¤200 payment was “the only way forward.”

“The minister and his department are far from reality. It’s a Health and Safety issue. Are they going to bring weighing scales to each farmer?

“The Minister for Agriculture doesn’t know what’s happening whatsoever. A typical example is the fodder crisis - but when it happened in Cork, then there was a fodder crisis,” she said.

“And we still haven’t gotten a response regarding the Dunally Vet Lab. The review of that was announced in December 2016 - we were supposed to know this year about it,” she said.

Cllr Joe Queenan also supported Cllr Clarke and described the current Beef Genomics programme was “a farce really” and added he had “no faith in it.” He also called on Cllr Hubert Keaney to confirm whether Dunally Vet Lab will remain open or not.

Cllr Keaney replied that he was not the Minister for Agriculture and that he recently put down his own motion calling on the Minister to confirm it.

Cathaoirleach Cllr Martin Baker said the country didn’t have the animals people need.