Strategically develop the farming industry with European aid
This package is very welcome. Poor commodity prices across a number of sectors have resulted in a lot of difficulty being experienced at a farm level.
The aid package includes the voluntary supply control scheme and an allocation of funding for each member state to distribute to farmers.
A surprising number of Irish dairy farmers opted for the voluntary supply control scheme which is now closed.
There has been much debate within farm organisations and at a political level as to how the allocation of funding will be distributed to farmers.
Following discussions at a Macra na Feirme Agricultural Affairs committee level, l and having consulted with many young farmers, I am calling firstly for the EU Commission aid package for livestock farmers to be 100% co-funded to bring the figure for the total fund over €22m.
This money then needs to be strategically invested in measures which will improve profitability and efficiency inside the farm gate, rather than being paid out as a flat-rate payment to all farmers.
Farmers are adamant that this package must be accessible to all farmers across the grass-based livestock sectors.
If this money is spread across the livestock sectors, in a flat rate payment to all livestock farmers, then the amount received by farmers will only amount to small change.
I fully acknowledge that there is a cashflow issue on many farmers due to poor commodity prices but a small once-off payment would do little to alleviate the cash flow problems which exist at the moment.
Grassland improvement
This aid money would be much better spent and more beneficial to farmers if it was invested in an optional grassland improvement scheme which would part fund grassland improvement measures.
The measures proposed would include reseeding and dealing with soil fertility issues.
A strategic scheme of this nature would show a medium- to long-term vision for improving and investing in the main productive assets within the farm gate and thus help achieve the Foodwise 2025 targets.
Soil fertility and grass utilisation are one of the most efficient ways of measuring the productivity of grassland, which is a key driver of profitability for any grass-based livestock sector.
In the medium- to long-term, a measure like this will return more to farmers, than a one-off small flat-rate payment ever could, as a result of improvements in soil fertility and grass utilisation.
Reports from the Teagasc Beef open day 2016 declared an astonishing 50% of Irish farms are not reaching their grass growth potential.
For Ireland to sustain its world renowned green image, as well as support Irish farmers, this money should be wisely invested in grassland improvements.
€150 per acre
This proposal based on a total fund of €22.2m, with farmers receiving a €150 payment per acre to part cover reseeding costs, would result in the completion of 148,000 acres of reseeding across the country.
This is clearly the fairest and simplest proposal for the spending of this money, as it benefits all active grass-based livestock farmers, focusing on efficiency regardless of size or scale and does not show bias towards one section of the livestock sector versus another.
The benefit of this measure is to decrease cost of production in the long term, rather than incurring debt, meeting our environmental and sustainability targets, and it is accessible without major cost to all farms while still being a worthwhile pay-out.
Significant developments have been made in the areas of breeding with a focus on EBI on the dairy side and through the Beef Data and Genomic Programme on the suckler side but the other productive assets have not received the same amount of attention and this is now the opportune time to focus on them with a strategically focused scheme.
As part of the last EU dairy aid package, Macra na Feime secured a €1,000 top-up for young dairy farmers on top of the flat payment. We called for this top-up at meeting of the dairy forum.
Further lobbying resulted in approximately €1.5m making its way into the hands of young dairy farmers across rural Ireland. This is a very good example of delivery by Macra na Feirme for our members and young farmers.
If on this occasion, Agriculture Minister Michael Creed does decide to go down the flat payment route again with this package, then young farmers request a top-up on the payment.
Other enterprises — outside of the grass-based livestock sectors — can also not be forgotten also as they too require assistance and are under as much, if not more financial pressure than some of the grass based livestock sectors.
The establishment of the tillage stakeholders forum which we are part of is welcomed and needed to deal with the challenges faced by young tillage farmers as a result of poor weather and bad grain prices.
