Butcher’s heifers

IFA in Limerick have sought a meeting with the Craft Butchers Association to discuss the trade in heifers aged over 24 months.

Since January 2006, BSE prevention regulations have obliged butchers to remove the backbone (and other specified risk material) from cattle over 24 months.

As a result, butchers don’t want heifers even a day older than two years, said farmers at a recent IFA meeting in the county. Farmers at the meeting confirmed Department of Agriculture officials are checking slaughter heifers for age.