Teagasc: 18% fewer sucklers
Kevin Hanrahan of Teagasc said, “Maintaining the link between the slaughter premium and production would not halt the decline in suckler cow numbers. However, it would result in an improvement of 5% or more in income for around 40% of beef producers.”
“The majority of beef producers would be better off as a result of full decoupling of payments. The main losers would be the larger, commercial farms. While these account for a relatively small number, there would still be a substantial amount of money redistributed from this group across a large number of small beef farms.”
Kevin Hanrahan is one of the Teagasc economists whose report issued this week indicates that full decoupling of all EU farm payments from 2005 is the best available policy option for the Irish agricultural industry.
Full decoupling is expected to lead to a 10% increase in aggregate farm income in 2012, compared to the income level that would occur under current policies.
Economist Thia Hennessy predicted a more attractive exit strategy for less efficient dairy farmers and a larger pool of milk for dairy farmers with the means to expand resulting from the recent decision by Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh to decouple dairy compensation payments from production from 2005.
“The new arrangements will result in a decline in dairy farmer numbers from less than 27,000 at present to 18,000 in 2012, with average quota of almost 300,000 litres. If decoupling was delayed until 2008, the number of dairy farmers in 2012 could be as low as 16,000,” said Thia Hennessy.
