Competitors flock to shearing event
Sheep throughput up 7% for third year, reaching 2.61m head
THE total value of Irish sheep meat exports is estimated to have increased by over 4% in 2013 to reach €220m, and while the breeding flock declined slightly, a return to growth is expected this year.
Sheep throughput rose by 7% for the third successive year, reaching 2.61 million head.
These developments led to sheep meat production rising by around 3% to stand at just over 55,000 tonnes.
Some 75% of the product is exported to 35 countries, mainly France, Britain and other EU member states.
Comprising 30,000 producers, the sheep sector is the third most important farming enterprise in Ireland in terms of numbers. It also plays a critically important role in terms of environmental protection and preservation in sensitive hill and mountainous areas. The processing sector, together with inputs and services, also provide significant downstream employment in rural areas.
All of these factors will be highlighted when Ireland hosts the 16th Golden Shears World Sheep Shearing and Wool Handling Championships later this week. These will be held on a 25-acre site in Gorey, Co Wexford, from Thursday until Sunday. A programme of fringe events has already started.
Over 300 competitors from 30 different countries including China and Russia will compete over four days.
The event, which is expected to attract 40,000 visitors, is costing an estimated €700,000 to stage. Some 6,600 sheep, provided by farmers in Wexford and across the country, will be treated and prepared for shearing.
The programme will incorporate a Good Food Ireland Village and other activities.
George Graham, host chairman, said it will be a major showcase for the sheep industry, and will celebrate all that is best about Irish food. But difficulties facing sheep farmers will not be overshadowed.
John Lynskey, chairman, Irish Farmers Association sheep committee, said incomes on sheep farms are low at just over €18,000 per annum, or about 55% of the average industrial wage. He said the Sheep Grassland Scheme was valued at €18m per annum when introduced in 2010. It proved effective and was simple to administer. It halted the decline in ewe numbers and helped to restore some confidence at farm level.
Unfortunately, the value of the scheme was cut to €14m for 2013 with some €3m transferred to the Sheep Technology Programme scheme.
The latest Central Statistics Office data show a 3.1% cut in sheep numbers on December 2012 levels. The breeding flock is back 1.2% or 30,000 ewes.
Mr Lynskey said the proposal to abolish the Sheep Grassland Scheme and have the 2014 payments added to the Single Farm Payment of flock owners in 2015 and future years was a major problem. “Under this proposal, the benefits of the Grassland Scheme will be lost to the sheep sector and individual sheep farmers will lose out.”
Mr Lynskey said the Government under Food Harvest 2020 has set down a modest growth target for the sector of 20% in output value. But if ewe numbers start to decline again at farm level, which is feared as a result of the loss of the Sheep Grassland Scheme, this target is unlikely to be reached.
Mr Lynskey said the IFA has proposed that total funding under the scheme should be restored to the original €18m.
Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney, replying to Dáil questions, said he had been conscious of the needs of sheep farmers, particularly those on hill and commonage land, when developing the new system of direct payments.
In general, sheep farmers hold low value entitlements under the Single Farm Payment scheme and will benefit significantly from the model of convergence to be applied in Ireland. Those with a low initial unit value will see the value of their entitlements increase over the period of the scheme (seven years).
“Essentially, we have looked to apply the same approach we applied to the beef sector. In the future we will not have a lump sum of unspent money that we can simply assign to a Sheep Grassland Scheme as we did in the past. For this reason, we are proposing to decouple that payment and add it to a sheep farmer’s Single Farm Payment.
“As a result, in 2015, sheep farmers will get the full value, which is €15m this year.
“I have increased that value from €13m last year to try to maximise the amount of money I can put back directly into the sheep sector. That €15m is as far as I can go in terms of the availability of unspent moneys.”
