I understand that following stakeholder representations over a number of years and following a recommendation in Food Harvest 2020, it is proposed to establish a suckler demonstration farm in Athenry to serve farmers in the west of Ireland. The project is modelled on the well known Greenfield dairy demonstration farm in Kilkenny which annually attracts large numbers of farmers and discussion groups. The Greenfield model involved the establishment of a company to operate and finance the dairy farm. It is highly regarded, and provides a public good demonstration service to all farmers in the dairy sector. It is envisaged that the Athenry project would operate along similar lines with the aim of demonstrating to farmers, the profit that can be obtained from a well run suckler beef farm.
The Athenry project is an operational matter for Teagasc and its governing Authority, which is representative of the main stakeholder groups in the agri-food sector, including representatives of the farming organisations.
I understand that Teagasc is in discussions with the company in question which is the only meat company to have expressed willingness to assist in the project. It is anticipated that the company would be responsible for managing and financing the demonstration farm similar to the Greenfield project. As a member of the project steering group, Teagasc’s role is to provide expert technical advice and to disseminate the research results to farmers. Teagasc is also making available rented lands in Athenry for the project. My Department has only recently been approached by Teagasc to see if some Department owned land in Athenry could be made available and this matter is currently under examination.
Teagasc is satisfied that the Athenry suckler demonstration farm will provide very valuable information to all beef farmers and will be a major focal point for discussion groups.
In establishing the beef roundtable discussions, it was identified that more could be done to improve transparency throughout the beef sector. My Department collates the prices paid for domestic cattle on a weekly basis and reports this data to the European Commission in accordance with Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1249/2008 and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No. 148/2014. To ensure price transparency, results for Members States are published on the DG Agriculture & Rural Development website. The published weekly data includes market prices for carcasses and live animals as well as information on production and herd inventories. This publicly accessible information allows stakeholders to monitor the evolution of the market situation in each Member State.
There is also a wealth of information available to farmers under the Beef PriceWatch section on my Department’s website, including the prices for Steers, Cows, and Heifers across the classification grid, for each DAFM approved factory.
My Department recently launched the Beef PriceWatch app which brings together the above information in an easy to use format direct to farmers smartphones, tablets and PCs. The app includes grid prices on a per factory basis for young bulls adding another degree of transparency to the sector.
With regards to slaughter figures, my Department publishes the Meat Market Report weekly within the Beef Pricewatch area of our website which gives details of number of animals slaughtered broken down by category of animal.
Finally on the question of livestock breeding and production research I have provided €33m in 2014 for a beef data and genomics scheme to improve breed quality in the suckler herd, in addition to the substantial funding provided to Teagasc, ICBF and AHI. In 2015, the funding provision will be increased to €52m as part of an overall provision of €300m for beef data and genomics over the lifetime of the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020.
