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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 14 Feb 2002

Vol. 548 No. 4

Written Answers. - National Beef Herd.

Liz McManus

Question:

47 Ms McManus asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the steps his Department is taking to upgrade and improve the national beef herd; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4944/02]

The improvement of the quality of the national beef herd is a matter of considerable importance in relation to the future viability of beef farming in Ireland in that it will facilitate the production of high quality products which are demanded in the premium priced markets of Europe and, thereby, help the industry to reduce its dependence on the more and volatile third country markets.

The quality of our beef cattle can be improved through better breeding techniques and through the use of better husbandry practices at farm level. In regard to breeding, the pooling of resources and expertise in the cattle breeding area which took place with the formation of the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation provides a real opportunity to make significant progress in beef breed improvement over the coming years. The ICBF has a mandate to improve the breeding quality of the Irish cattle herd. Breeding objectives are being clearly defined in the context of changing market requirements and farming systems and the achievement of these objectives is being pursued through the operation of a comprehensive national recording, testing and evaluation programme. Recently an important milestone in this development was marked when ICBF launched its new animal breeding database. This database will facilitate the capture of all animal breeding data and will be the cornerstone on which to build a cattle breeding programme to produce the type of high quality products that will meet the needs of consumers in the future. ICBF has the full support of my Department and the Government have allocated significant resources to ICBF under the national development plan between now and the end of 2006.
Teagasc has also committed significant resources aimed in particular at improving the quality of our beef cows and regularly undertaken demonstrations around the country to promote better breeding. Teagasc are also using focused programmes to pro-actively promote the production of quality beef on a cost effective profitable basis, using efficient breeding and feeding systems.
I have also sought to improve the quality of our beef cow herd by using the discretion available to me under the national envelope provided for in Agenda 2000 to encourage farmers to replace their older suckler cows with better quality replacement heifers. A total of €10.4 million will be available for this measure this year.
I should point out that if beef farmers are to produce better quality beef they must be rewarded in the form of increased returns from the marketplace for their product.
In this regard, my Department has worked closely with the industry over the last few years to encourage the introduction of a graded pricing structure for cattle at slaughter. I am pleased to report that these efforts have yielded very positive results in the form of significant differentials for better quality carcases.
In addition, my Department has been to the forefront in pushing at European Union level for the introduction of mechanical classification which would help to underpin a structured quality based pricing system. In this regard, a trial in which an official from my Department was involved, was held in Germany last September and it is hoped that the Commission will set standards for the authorisation of machines which will allow their use in member states at the earliest possible date.
All of these measures will assist farmers to upgrade and improve their beef herds and enable them to produce quality beef more efficiently, thereby resulting in a more secure future for Irish beef farmers.
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