andMr. L'Estrange asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries the reason for the decline in value of over £3 million in the export of live cattle during the period 1st January to 31st July of the present year.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Live Cattle Exports.
9.
There seems to be no single reason for this decline which was mainly in the store cattle sector.
The factors affecting the situation seem to have been the high exports of cattle and been in 1967 and 1968, the consistently high prices for our store cattle throughout this year, and the tightness and cost of credit in Britain.
Can the Minister give any assurance to farmers that they will be able to get rid of this backlog during the next five or six months?
That they will get rid of what?
The backlog of cattle we have. We have many more than we had last year.
Who said that he had a backlog of cattle? Who said that he wanted to get rid of them?
The people want to sell them at reasonable prices.
If they wanted to sell them at reasonable prices this has not been borne out by the price obtaining right through this year.
Is the Minister aware that cattle are selling at the present time at prices of from £7 10s to £7 15s at local marts—£1 per cwt. less than this time 12 months? There is a backlog of cattle. This £3 million worth of cattle is there to be sold. Can the Minister give any assurance to the farmers and producers that they will get to market them during the next six months?
One assurance that I would give them is not to take any notice of what Deputy L'Estrange has trotted out just now.
What about the two thousand sold to Germany a few years ago?
In this direction would undoubtedly lie disaster for the farmers if they were to heed the warnings given explicitly here today by Deputy L'Estrange. He talks about prices of £7 and £7 15s and does not mention any of the prices even obtaining today, as high as £11 10s per cwt, that I have seen and know personally to have been paid even within the last ten days, for stores. Let us get a balance on this. Furthermore, we should also keep in mind that the carrying capacity of our own farms and the farmers' capacity to carry more cattle, both financially and from the point of view of winter keep, has been increasing in these recent years and that the farmers who are retaining more cattle to feed them are undoubtedly doing it in the belief that this is more profitable than to sell them earlier at lighter weights.
Will the Minister not agree that some have to keep them when they cannot sell them now at higher prices?
Do not try a scare. It will not work.
(Interruptions.)
Order. Question No. 10.