asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if his attention has been drawn to the serious reduction in cow herd numbers in this country; and the adverse effect this situation is going to have on our beef exports and meat processing factories in the near future; if, in view of that situation, he will now agree to abolish the off-farm income regulations from cattle headage and suckler cow schemes; and if he will also allow all dairy farmers under the 25,000 gallon milk quota to participate in the beef cow and suckler cow schemes where capacity exists to do so.
Written Answers. - Cow Herd Numbers.
14.
The most recent data from the Central Statistics Office show that whilst the total national cow herd declined by 1.7 per cent in 1987 compared with a decline of 2.3 per cent in the previous year, the number of heifers in calf increased by 1.5 per cent. Moreover, in the non-dairy sector, the total of cows plus in-calf heifers was up by 4 per cent.
The abolition of the off-farm income limit in the disadvantaged areas schemes would not necessarily guarantee any increase in cow numbers and in fact would cost the Exchequer £7 million in the first year and £3.5 million in each subsequent year after the benefit of EC recoupment was taken into account.
The EC suckler cow scheme is confined to full-time farmers and includes the requirement that applicants must earn at least 50 per cent of their total income on-farm. As Ireland and Northern Ireland are already receiving favourable treatment in regard to the amount of the premium, I do not see any prospect of securing further concessions under this scheme which would involve fundamental changes in qualification requirements applicable to all member states.
Finally, it simply would not be possible to allow dairy farmers who have some beef cows to participate in either the disadvantaged areas or the EC suckler cow schemes. The rules of the latter scheme specifically disallow this while under the disadvantaged areas scheme, the difficulty of distinguishing between the dairy cows and the beef cows on an applicant's farm would be so formidable as to rule this option out also.