When you look at farming in this country generally, you find that there are many different types. There are all the different sizes of farms, the owners of which all have their own particular system of working. There is a big variety of farming activities and when it comes to devising a policy of helping all of them, the Department had to think on a very broad basis in order to give help that would suit every type of farming.
When he spoke here in introducing this Estimate, the Minister said that £39 million was being poured into agriculture in the coming year. That is a very big slice of the national income — nearly 25 per cent. Agriculture is our biggest industry and one that has not being doing as well as many farmers would like. Naturally it has been getting the bigger share of the subsidies. Many people feel that they are getting an income only when they see it in the form of hard cash but our policy has been to give indirect subsidies so that the farmers will be able to compete in the Common Market when we get into it.
A few years ago there was trouble about our butter subsidies because we were giving direct subsidies to help our farmers to sell abroad. There was objection to that in England and also by the countries which supply butter to England. If we were doing that with all our other commodities, there will have to be a big change when we enter the Common Market. Agriculture is the slowest industry in which changes can be made. Changes can be made in other industries and made in three or four years, but any change the farmers make takes a long time to show results.
Changes cannot be made in agriculture overnight and one has to look very far ahead when making them. We have been giving indirect subsidies.In the case of fertiliser alone, one can see the tremendous increase in the amount being used. Farmers have learned that with cheap fertiliser, their incomes can increase. The results from phosphates and potash have been spectacular and there has been a big increase in the use of nitrogen fertiliser. The increase in its use over the past few years has been practically 90 per cent. The nitrogen is also a help to get crops growing, particularly in the older pastures.
Where nitrogen has been used, it has increased production in meadows and has brought about earlier ripening of meadows. It is also useful in hay-making.Nearly every year there will be at least four or five good sunny days in June when quite an amount of the meadow can be cut and when the food value is very high. The month of July has tended over the years to be showery and whereas the rest of the hay can be made up at that stage, most of it can be cut in June when there is a fine spell of sun-shine, as the records have proved. Manure has been giving results, and will over the years to come, on quite an amount of our grassland, and production will improve.
In that regard I would very much like to compliment the Minister on the £15 heifer subsidy. Since he announced it I have had a good deal of inquiries; it has been very well received and will produce the results. The Minister has been asked why he does not give it in respect of every heifer. It must be remembered we are looking for 1,500,000 extra cattle. Whether there is a subsidy or not, there will still be the normal number, maybe a slight rise, but in order to achieve an increase of the magnitude the Minister is seeking, this subsidy is offered as an incentive.
It must be borne in mind that we cannot import calves. Our raw material is here and the calves must be bred here. I am confident this heifer scheme will bring in the increased numbers required. It will have the desirable effect of increasing the price of heifers, the trade in which has been rather dull for the past year or two. There will be another desirable effect. There has been a good deal of criticism in the English market that a percentage of our store heifers going over there are in calf. Naturally if there is the possibility of getting £15, that heifer will be kept at home to produce the calf.
It is a very wise plan to increase the number of beef cattle. This is practically the only beef exporting country in western Europe. Once we get into that market, I would say we have a fair chance of getting results. To a large extent, beef that is used on the continent is cow beef. Our cattle have no chance of getting in there on account of the high tariff against us. Our price is right and once those tariffs come down, I believe the people in Europe will develop a taste for our Irish beef which is one of the best in the world. It is younger than that in countries like the Argentine and Australia and we have an advantage over most of these countries which export frozen beef, in that, first, it loses quite an amount of the flavour and secondly, the beef they produce is older. With the increase in living standards in Europe, there is a market for our cattle.
It has been reported in some of our newspapers in the past week that one of our advisers has said that it is impossible to reach this target of 1,500,000 cattle. I believe it is doing harm to say in regard to a scheme with such long-term benefits and which will produce such desirable results for the farming community that it will not succeed. We can take it the Department of Agriculture have gone into this thoroughly and we can expect to see the full results of it in ten or 12 years' time.
The grants for new buildings such as haysheds will also prove to be wise expenditure. It is amazing to see the number of haysheds that have sprung up in the past four or five years. That is the result of careful planning by the Department of Agriculture. The farmer is one of the first people to see whether something is a bargain or not. With labour getting more difficult to acquire, it is not as easy to build these hay ricks out in the haggard. Furthermore a hayshed is also useful for housing cattle. All these facilities will be needed for the increased number of cattle that will be produced in the future.
I welcome the broadminded idea of the Department in seeking the best possible breed of cattle for us. They brought in the Charollais and they are very careful not to let it out until they are certain it will suit the Irish conditions.They have to ensure that only the right type of cattle is used. We have seen the result of very bad planning in regard to the beef Shorthorn over the past 50 or 60 years. It is hardly necessary for me to mention that it became neither one thing nor the other; it became small and had none of the desired qualities. Sometimes breeding societies are inclined to get finicky about a particular type of animal.
Take the beef Shorthorns in Scotland, for example. I think you could even say the same thing about the present Aberdeen-Angus — that the number is too small for producing the cattle and that a vast growth is needed. We need early-maturing cattle at present.Nobody can have a broader outlook on this matter, without any vested interest, than the officials of the Department who are there to see what is best for the country. I welcome this trying out of new cattle and judging of results for themselves.
We are very fortunate that we live on an island. It is easy to keep out some of the diseases that are prevalent on the continent — foot and mouth disease, fowl pest, and so on.
Our Department can be congratulated on the good work they have been doing over the years in many spheres of agriculture. I turn now to the question of sheep. I feel there is a fair market for sheep in Europe. We have exported quite an amount of sheep to France this year and we have developed a good trade with Britain as well. I want to voice one or two criticisms. If anything, we have too many crossbreeds of sheep competing for foreign markets. I am aware that the Department are examining the position and are trying to find the best crosses. We can have at least three or four that will suit requirements. There is no use in trying to put a Galway ewe on the Donegal mountains, and so on. You must have breeds that will suit the location and climate and use the crossing to get a lamb that will be the nearest to what is required. The housewife has to be suited and we must try to produce something as near as possible to her requirements. With the experiments that are taking place, I hope that, in time, it will be possible to produce about three or four breeds for crossing which will be suitable for requirements at home and abroad.
We must try to produce the best pigs. We are competing with the best pig producers in the world — the Danes. They have been able to produce a live animal of exactly the size and shape they require, just as if it were a piece of furniture produced from a factory. When the British shopkeeper buys a side of Danish bacon, he knows the exact weight it will be, and so on. We must strive to achieve that target. The Danes have been working on all that for 50 years.
We have our pig-progeny testing stations. We have started late but we have a chance of competing on the British market. There is no use in trying to sell fat bacon across Europe or across Britain. There was a time when parts of the west of Ireland used to take quite an amount of fat bacon but that area is getting smaller even in our own country. The position is the same in Britain and will be the same on the European market.
We need to encourage the setting-up of co-operative pig-fattening stations. Pigs can be fattened there in large numbers. The feeding can be controlled so as to produce the Grade A and the Grade A Special bacon. Those fattening units have not the facilities to produce the bonhams. Nobody can provide the individual attention or produce bonhams as cheaply as the small farmer. He is able to give personal attention to the farrowing house. One might like to see very elaborate houses but still if what are in use are warm, then the fundamental requirement is there.
Over the years, the small farmer has been able to make a house that is warm for sows and he can produce the bonhams better than anybody else. It is very difficult to produce them in large numbers as efficiently as he is able to produce them on his farm. The trouble is that he has not the buildings or the capital to fatten the pigs because it is at that stage that the pig must have an exceptionally warm house and it takes an amount of capital for feeding from the eight to ten weeks' stage up to bacon weight. Therefore, the small farmer has a ready-made market for his bonhams with the fattening station.
At the other end of it, factories can cut their costs a great deal more. I know that at certain stages they could actually give as much as 10/- a cwt. more if they were sure of getting a regular supply of bacon. With a big number of fattening units, factories could get an even flow of pigs. Take, for example, a factory in Dublin. Possibly on a Monday a few pigs would come in; on Tuesday a little more because there might be a few fairs in the country. On Wednesday a huge supply comes forward which overflows to Thursday and there are some more on Friday. The difficulty is the irregularity.The factories have to keep the same number of men employed the whole time. It is necessary that the factories be kept going at full strength all the time. To a large extent, our competitors have achieved this desirable state of affairs. With the profit on pigs so small, the number are required and efficiency is essential.
From the time the pig is mated right up to the time it is killed, there must be efficiency to keep it going and to be able to produce the type of bacon that is needed on the export market. The pig end of it is achieved through management and feeding. Our Department of Agriculture are to be congratulated on the introduction of some very fine Landrace boars which can be used for crossing with our Large White sows. I feel our Large White sow is the basis we shall need because she will produce a bigger litter and is a better milker than the Landrace and, with the crossing, we shall get the grading and the type of pig that will increase the growth and fattening of our pigs. Every encouragement should be given to these large co-operative units throughout the country. The one dread the small farmer has is that when he produces pigs and bonhams, he will not be able to sell them. It is difficult to go from one fair to another and it is difficult to build up a trade for very small numbers.
I welcome the announcement that there is to be one agricultural inspector for every 800 holdings. This advisory service has been held up to some extent by the county committees of agriculture not providing the finance. In the eastern counties where a penny will bring in a pound, there has been some achievement in this regard but in the western counties where the penny does not bring in so much, they have not been so successful. In the next six months, there will be a big increase in the number of advisory agricultural inspectors, particularly in the west. The instructors should concentrate on the farm management angle rather than advising a farmer how to grow a field of wheat or grass. It is from the overall results that the farmer gets his income and it is no use advising him to grow corn or grass if he does not know how best to utilise that advice. With a good knowledge of farm management, he will be able to get the greatest benefit from his labours. They have been turning to this aspect in the past year but greater emphasis must be placed on it. I should like to congratulate the firms that have been running competitions and offering prizes for farm management. They are to be congratulated for encouraging farmers in this regard.
Bord Bainne have achieved a great deal of success over the past year in the marketing of milk and milk products.The idea of putting a brand name, "Kerrygold", on our product was a good one. It is something that will catch the housewife's eye when she is shopping. Fundamentally, all Irish butter is the same and it is only in this way that we will have a chance of achieving something and disposing of any surplus that may build up. You could never build up a trade in butter from one creamery or another and it has all to be sold as Irish butter.
The sale of our product should be encouraged in Africa where there are new, independent States and in which one commodity which is in short supply is milk. Milk either in powdered or some other form should have a market in these countries eventually. I hope that possibility is being explored.
It is a good thing that the butter is being sold all over the world. Granted that some of it is not getting a fancy price but when people acquire a taste for it, the price will go up. There was a time years ago when there was a good market in England for Irish butter but we lost that market because we could provide butter only in summertime and had not a constant supply to give them during the winter. The result was that people turned over to New Zealand or Danish butter in the wintertime and developed a taste for that butter which is quite different from our own butter. When we started to increase production after the war, we found that people in England were not too keen on our butter. On one or two occasions here we imported some Danish butter and the people objected strongly to it. It is the same with our butter in England. People's taste for it has to be developed. It is an extremely good product, one of the best we could ask for.
In regard to horticulture, the Sugar Company are to be congratulated on trying to develop a market. Horticulture can fit easily into the farming pattern, especially in the case of small farmers who can get a high income from a small amount of land. There is a market for horticultural products as can be seen from advertisements on television for various kinds of English and foreign soups and canned goods. With our climate and soil, we can produce the vegetables for these foods. As the standard of life rises in Europe, they will be looking more and more for instant foods, foods which can be made up in a very short space of time.
In Europe, more and more girls and women are living in flats. When they return from work, they need something which does not take long to cook, something prepackaged and ready prepared. The standard of living both in Britain and on the continent has been rising, and people are more and more demanding this type of handy, semi-luxury type food. More married women are now working, and they too, require ready-prepared and packaged foods. Although this is an extremely competitive market, in which some very large firms are participating, I believe we have the article and that we will succeed in getting our share of it. In addition, it is a line which leaves much room for development in the future.
As we cannot afford to leave any portion of a farm producing nothing, so also must we make every part of the country pull its weight. Every bit of land must be made to produce something. Even the mountain land must be brought in by producing sheep. I know that in this regard excellent results have been obtained in some places by the use of fertilisers, and we must encourage that development.The fencing scheme will bring beneficial results, particularly to the farmers in the west and in the mountainous areas.
The Agricultural Institute has done remarkably good work since it was set up. It has been channelling information to the advisory services and investigating every aspect of Irish agriculture. The only criticism I would make is that it has struck me that they have an extremely large acreage to carry on their work, and I wonder if they need all these farms to carry out their experiments. Most of their work is concerned with plots, and the acreage does look rather big.
In one or two places — London and Brussels, for instance — we have agricultural counsellors attached to our embassies. I feel that more of our embassies should have these counsellors. If you have a man on the spot with an agricultural background, he will have a better idea of the situation than an official without an agricultural background, and he will be able to find possible outlets for our agricultural produce.
The results achieved under the Bovine TB Eradication Scheme can only be described as amazing. They were brought about as a result of co-operation between the farmers and the Department. It was no mean feat to be able to clear in four or five years 20 of our counties, the areas in which was the main movement of cattle. I feel that within the next couple of years we will be able to get the same results in the south.
Very good work has been done under the Land Project over the years, but I often feel there is unnecessary delay in the case of joint schemes in getting them out to the people concerned.The Boyne drainage is going on in my constituency at present. They have to consult with the Board of Works so that their bridges and levels will be the same as those of the Board of Works when the Board comes to do the Boyne arterial drainage. My only little criticism, therefore, is that I feel some of the joint schemes could be hurried up. It usually means a number of farms cannot be drained until this work is done. I know they do get preferential treatment to a certain extent but, even so, it is taking quite a while.
Bord na gCon have achieved quite a lot in the few years they have been in existence. They have secured a ready market for the type of dog practically unsaleable a few years ago — the moderate animal, which was always very hard to sell. They have been able to secure markets in Italy and America in addition to the existing market in Britain. Greyhound racing is the small man's sport. He cannot think of having horses. But if he can have a bit of fun with greyhounds and make some money at the same time, more power to him. Bord na gCon have succeeded in removing any little abuses which existed, and the industry is now going extremely well.
In conclusion, I wish the Minister well in his new heifer scheme. I think the £15 subsidy will achieve the results he hopes for in the years ahead.