Cecilia Keaveney
Question:33 Cecilia Keaveney asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the plans, if any, he has to improve the breed characteristics of beef cattle; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13627/99]
Other Questions. - Cattle Societies.
Beef cattle breeding in Ireland was, until recently, fragmented between a number of organisations including my Department, AI societies and beef breed societies. However, the pooling of resources and expertise to form the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation now provides a real opportunity to have greater industry participation in cattle breeding and to make significant progress in developing the breed characteristics of beef cattle. One of the main objectives of the ICBF is to improve the genetic merit of the national herd.
My Department is also involved in discussions with the meat processing industry and farming organisations with a view to introducing a pricing system which adequately rewards quality beef production and encourages producers to improve the beef characteristics of their cattle. I understand that the Task Force on the Beef Industry which I set up last November is also addressing this issue.
I congratulate the Minister on the many agricultural initiatives he has introduced. Will he comment on the suitability of current breeds for the European and international markets? Is the quality grass beef animal status, of which we are so proud and which we flag so often, being undermined by certain present strands of animal stock?
No doubt the scrub bull has had a deleterious effect on the national cattle herd. The quality of beef cattle has deteriorated in the past seven or eight years. About 80 per cent are unsuited to the remunerative high quality continental markets like France and Germany. Where only 20 per cent qualify, there is something radically wrong. There are a number of reasons for this: the use of poor quality bulls; the change in the composition of live exports and the absence of any significant price differentials based on the classification rate and not helped by re-nationalisation of EU markets. In other words, flat pricing is an absolute disaster. There is an urgent need to up-grade and improve the quality of the beef herd.
Does the Minister envisage, or would he hope for, a ban on flat pricing at factories?
I would welcome payment on a graded and quality basis. The difficulty is that there is not sufficient confidence between the farmers and the meat factories to do that because, as the Deputy will be aware, the assessment is subjective. The National Food Centre at Dunsinea is evaluating objective mechanical systems for the grading of animals. If there is an objective system, then that will instil confidence and farmers will be happy to accept payment on a graded or quality basis.
In general, apart from factories there is a differential for good quality cattle at marts. It is in the interests of farmers to improve the quality of the breed.
Is it the Minister's intention that farmers who produce top quality beef would be compensated by the meat factories?
The real difficulty at present is that we are dependent on opportunistic markets in third countries for a great deal of exports. We have lost out heavily in the continental European market and in the UK market. Much of the reason for that was the BSE difficulty in 1996 but there was also the problem of the renationalisation of those markets and the unsuitability of much of our beef. As soon as there is an improvement in the quality of beef and there is an objective method for payment on a graded system, that will be done and can be implemented quickly.
Written Answers follow Adjournment Debate.