Teagasc predicts 10% fewer cattle farms in 2018
While this new sectoral analysis predicts a 10% decline in beef cattle farms from 100,000 down to 90,000 over the next seven years, this reflects a likely move towards mixed farming rather than any exodus from Irish beef farming, and the authors of the report expect the Government’s Food Harvest 2020 targets of a 20% increase in beef output to be met with ease. This increase will come partly from the slaughter of male dairy calves in the expanding dairy herd, and partly from production gains on existing beef farms, such as shorter calving intervals and a closer matching of calving to the prime grass season.
Teagasc beef expert Dr Eddie O’Riordan explained: “We have no divine knowledge of what will happen, but we can make predictions based on the trends of recent years. In the last few years, the numbers in beef have been coming down gradually. It is likely that the number of suckler beef cows will fall by about 14,000 a year between now and 2018.
