Pressure on Agriculture Minister as record number of unwanted dairy calves slaughtered 

Oireachtas Agriculture Committee member Michael Collins said he will be raising the issue, and suggested Minister McConalogue should appear to answer questions on the issue. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Politicians are calling on Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue to immediately intervene to ban the slaughter of thousands dairy calves.

A record 4,556 calves were slaughtered in the week ending Sunday, March 5.

Members of the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee have strongly condemned the practice, which resulted in 29,495 unwanted calves being culled last year.

Committee member, Michael Fitzmaurice said the issue needs to be addressed immediately, as it blackens the name of farmers, the majority of whom take incredible care of their stock.

The Roscommon–Galway TD pointed to the fact that the number of category-v calves, which refers to bovines slaughtered from the day of birth until the day they are eight months old, has increased dramatically in recent years, and said the practice cannot continue.

"We need to be looking at this as it should not be tolerated. I think that this is something that Minister McConalogue has to take a hard look at."

Mr Fitzmaurice suggested that the slaughter of healthy dairy calves under the age of nine months should be banned.

Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy agreed that the practice of slaughtering bull calves needs to end.

However, he also hit out at Junior Agriculture Minister Pippa Hackett, who last week took to Twitter to strongly condemn the slaughter of thousands of young dairy calves.

Mr Carthy said "few are in a more pivotal position" to make a ban happen than Ms Hackett.

"Her tweet is unhelpful and typical — rather than engaging with stakeholders to resolve the issue that her department oversees she points the finger at others. Instead she should be reviewing the Dairy Beef Calf Welfare scheme to ensure it delivers it's stated objective and working with all stakeholders to end the practiced of the slaughter of bull calves."

Ms Hackett described the recent record-breaking figures as "unacceptable" and said the dairy sector "must take responsibility for its unwanted calves".

"This has a detrimental impact, not only on the animals, but on the public perception of farming," she said in a tweet.

However, Fine Gael senator and fellow Agriculture Committee member Tim Lombard suggested that a new charter put forward by dairy co-ops will end the practice of slaughtering dairy calves by 2024.

"It's disappointing that the Minister would highlight an issue that in many ways the co-operative movement have been ahead of the Department on," he said.

Mr Lombard added that advancements in sexed semen will also help to eradicate the problem as farmers will be able to breed heifer calves which can then be kept in the herd.

Fellow committee member Michael Collins said he will be raising the issue, and suggested Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue should appear to answer questions on the issue.

He said that the vast majority of farmers go above and beyond to care for calves.