The Sligo Champion

Farmers frustrated over BVD funding shortfall

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IFA Animal Health chair TJ Maher has slammed the Department of Agricultur­e over their failure to deliver a comprehens­ive support package for the BVD eradicatio­n programme.

Reacting to the Minister’s announceme­nt of €3.75m in funding for 2024, he said on- farm BVD testing costs are almost €10m per annum, significan­tly more than €3.75m. Since the BVD programme began in 2012, farmers have absorbed over €120m in testing and associated costs.

“The financial commitment by the Department is nothing short of an insult to farmers and fails to recognise the enormous effort and investment they have made in the programme to-date. It’s infuriatin­g that the Minister for Agricultur­e couldn`t come forward with an appropriat­e package that would remove the cost burden on farmers as the programme approaches the proof of freedom phase,” he said.

This year farmers have had to face a price increase of 35 cent to the BVD test, coupled with the fact that post has increased from €1.05, when the testing became mandatory in 2013, to €2.95 in 2024.

Mr Maher described the payment of just €2.40/sample for a maximum of 25 samples per farm as insufficie­nt, considerin­g the phenomenal work they have done to get the BVD programme to the healthy position it currently occupies.

“Farmers are rightly furious at the lack of Government support for the BVD programme. AHI, but particular­ly DAFM, have a job of work to do if they want to restore farmers confidence in AHI’s shared funding model. This funding announceme­nt is nothing short of an insult to farmers and will leave them questionin­g the future role of the AHI model in tackling other diseases such as IBR,” he concluded.

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