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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 29 Apr 1965

Vol. 215 No. 4

Committee on Finance. - Vote 39—Agriculture.

I move.

That a sum not exceeding £21,176,000 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st March, 1966, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for Agriculture, including certain Services administered by that Office, and for payment of certain subsidies and sundry Grants-in-Aid.

The total net Estimate for 1965/66, £31,765,000, shows an increase of £8,106,300 on the original net estimate for 1964/65 which amounted to £23,658,700. Including two Supplementary Estimate provisions for 1964/65 of £666,000 and £675,000, the final total Estimate for that year was, in fact, £30,999,700.

As compared with the original Estimate for 1964/65, the following subheads in particular show substantial increases: Subhead N.—Marketing, etc., of Dairy Produce; K.14—Scheme of Grants for Calved Heifers; K.8— Lime and Fertilisers Subsidies; K.18— Payments to Pigs and Bacon Commission; K.6—Farm Buildings Scheme; I.5—An Foras Talúntais; A—Salaries; K.7—Land Project; K.20—Temporary Beef Export Payments Scheme; and K.13—Brucellosis Eradication Scheme.

As compared with the original Estimate for 1964/65, K.11—Bovine Tuberculosis Eradication Scheme is the only subhead to show a substantial decrease. I am asking for a very large sum of money but as Deputies will be aware from the document entitled "Notes on the Main Activities of the Department" which has been circulated to them, I am operating a very comprehensive programme for the development of agriculture and for assistance to it.

All the indications are that 1964 was one of the best years ever for Irish agriculture. The value of gross agricultural output, including livestock changes, is estimated to have increased by £27.4 million or 12.7 per cent. Net agricultural output is estimated to have increased by £25.5 million or 14.7 per cent. Farmers' income is estimated to have risen from £121.5 million to £143.7 million. Allowing for the decline in numbers between the two years, this has meant an increase of roughly 20 per cent in per head income of farmers. While this is a substantial increase and has to some extent narrowed the gap between agricultural and other incomes, a considerable gap still exists and the Government are determined to bring about a progressive improvement in this situation.

The agricultural price index which had remained more or less static for many years showed a sizeable increase in 1964, rising by nearly 11 per cent over 1963. This increase resulted from the much improved prices for cattle and beef due to strong demand in export markets and from the increase in the prices of milk, barley, pigs and sugar beet. While there were some increases in costs, notably in wages, the total effect was to increase the share of gross output accruing as income to the farming community. The burden of rates on agricultural land was reduced to about the 1955/56 level, through an increase in the Exchequer grant.

The Government's policy in relation to agriculture was set out comprehensively and in detail in the Brown Book Agriculture in the Second Programme for Economic Expansion published by my Department in July, 1964. This policy document has commanded general acceptance from farming and rural organisations and indeed from the public generally. The 1970 agricultural targets set are ambitious. Their realisation is dependent primarily of course on the efforts of farmers in co-operation with the Government but the targets are also based on the prospect of improved international marketing arrangements for agricultural commodities, including membership of the EEC. The policy for agriculture is broadly settled and it will be my task as Minister for Agriculture to do everything I can to translate that policy into action. I am keeping under continuous review the progress towards the achievement of the 1970 agricultural targets and the adequacy and scope of the measures in force to realise them. I am particularly pleased that farmers are increasingly availing themselves of the various aids to increased production and productive efficiency. I and the Government as a whole are closely concerned in efforts to improve the market situation for our agricultural exports.

The second annual review of agriculture between the Government and the NFA which extended over three weeks in March/April surveyed the whole agricultural scene and examined ways and means of maintaining and accelerating the momentum in agricultural progress. I regard those review talks as of the greatest value in promoting a better mutual understanding of the problems and opportunities of Irish agriculture.

The problems of the small western farms have been engaging much of the Government's attention. The Government's aims for rural development under the Second Programme envisage the more intensive use of land and the creation of viable family farm units in small farm areas. The problems of small farms, lagging incomes and migration are most acute in the West and it is the Government's intention to take every possible step to raise the incomes of the farming community there. Already 12 pilot areas have been established in the Western Counties. The purpose of these areas is to demonstrate what can be accomplished by community effort in making full and proper use of all available resources and facilities so that similar areas elsewhere may be encouraged to apply the same techniques and practices. The basic aim is educational and to this end all the resources of the advisory services are being brought into play in an attempt to induce farmers in their areas to employ the most up-to-date methods and techniques, to encourage them to take advantage of all the grants, loans and other forms of assistance already available from the different State agencies, to develop co-operation and to give particular attention to encouraging and training younger people.

The work in the pilot development areas is only the first stage in the formation of a comprehensive development programme which will be capable of application in all western districts. I would like to stress, however, that ultimately it is the people of the West themselves who will determine the extent of the success of this programme. The State will do its part but unless our western farmers avail fully of the resources and facilities placed at their disposal, our efforts will not meet with the success which I know can be attained if everybody throws his heart into it.

I am glad to say that as a result of the increased State aid to Committees of Agriculture in the West under which we contribute 75 per cent towards the salaries of advisory officers, the target of one agricultural adviser for every 800 holdings over ten acres is well on its way towards achievement. Since October, 1963, 40 additional instructors in agriculture have been employed in the West, bringing the total number of advisers at present to 140. The recruitment programme is being continued and we hope some time in 1966 to achieve our target of 184 instructors. Our agricultural advisory service should then be numerically strong enough to bring about a worthwhile improvement in these areas. It rests with the farmers to make adequate use of it.

During the past year circumstances were favourable for the cattle industry. The export trade was buoyant with strong demand for both our store cattle and fat cattle. The shortage of beef on the European Continent led to increased exports of fat cattle to that area. In 1964 we exported 637,000 store cattle—an increase of 72,000 over 1963—and the highest number exported for quite a number of years. Exports of fat cattle increased from 90,000 in 1963 to 150,000 in 1964. Although shipments of live cattle have fallen off in the past three months as compared with the corresponding months of last year, prices have been at a high level and all the indications are that the demand in export markets will remain strong. This makes particularly welcome the growth in cattle numbers shown by the January census returns.

The high shipments of live cattle in 1964 affected our carcase meat industry which found it difficult to get adequate supplies of finished cattle for slaughter at licensed export premises. Slaughterings of cattle at these premises fell by about 100,000 between 1963 and 1964 and, as a temporary measure to assist the factories pending a further examination of the position by the Government, it was decided to introduce a scheme as from 1st February last under which payments are made in respect of good quality bullock and heifer beef exported to the UK market at rates equivalent to the payments made on such animals, including Irish stores finished in Britain, under the British Fatstock Guarantee Scheme. A sum of £150,000 is provided in Subhead K.20 to meet the cost of this scheme up to the end of June next. I hope by that time to have completed my examination of this important trade and to take decisions in regard to it. In introducing the Supplementary Estimate for Agriculture on 2nd March, I gave the House particulars of the present temporary scheme and accordingly I do not intend to go further into the matter now. Whilst our exports of carcase beef to Britain and the Continent in 1964 showed an increase over 1963, this increase took place at the expense of our boneless beef trade with the US which seriously declined due mainly to a falling-off in the number of cows slaughtered and the fact that prices in the US market during the year did not move in line with prices in Europe.

The scheme of grants for calved heifers was introduced on 1st January, 1964, to encourage farmers to keep additional cows with a view to the attainment of one of the major aims of the Second Programe of Economic Expansion—the expansion of the country's cattle output from just over one million in 1960 to 1,500,000 by 1970. The response to this scheme has far exceeded expectations. It was originally estimated that about 20,000 additional calved heifers would qualify for grants in 1964 and that the number would increase progressively to about 120,000 a year in 1967. In fact, grants had been paid to 78,500 farmers in respect of 202,500 calved heifers by the 31st March, 1965. It is expected that in the financial year 1965/66 over 220,000 heifers will qualify for grants and that expenditure on the scheme may reach £3,500,000 as compared with a little over £3 million in 1964/65. The average number of heifers qualifying for grants is about 2.5 per herd and there are no grounds to support the contention that the scheme is weighted in favour of the extensive landowner. While the scheme has been widely availed of throughout the country, the greatest increases relative to existing cow numbers have taken place in the western and north-western counties where the concentration of small farms is highest.

To achieve the target set in the Second Programme, we estimated that we would have to raise cow numbers by an average of 75,000 a year, compared with an average annual increase of 14,000 in the period 1960-62. The January 1965 census figures show that we have made a good start as the numbers of milch cows and heifers in calf were about 151,000 higher than in January, 1964.

Our production of sheep and lambs continues to expand and the 1964 sheep population was the highest ever recorded. The market position was also reasonably satisfactory during the year; this may have been helped somewhat by the shortage of beef in Western Europe to which I have already referred. At the rate of expansion in our sheep numbers in recent years we should have no difficulty in reaching our production target of 6.6 million in 1970.

On the breeding side, the main new development during the past year was the import by my Department through the quarantine station established at Spike Island of Charollais bulls and heifers from France and Friesian bulls and heifers and Texel sheep from Holland. In all, 74 animals were imported in the combined operation, comprising 18 Charollais and 25 Friesian cattle and 31 Texel sheep. The Charollais and Friesian bulls will be used in the general AI service and their breeding value assessed as soon as possible. The heifers of both breeds are being retained by the Department for building up basic pure-bred herds. The Texel sheep are also being retained by the Department to build up a pure-bred flock but they will, in addition, be used for an experimental crossing programme to evaluate their worth in fat lamb production.

I might mention that the question of importing some more Charollais cattle, mainly heifers, from France later this year is now under consideration; as is also the question of importing improved strains of Landrace and Large White pigs from Sweden and Norway.

The AI service for cattle made further substantial progress in 1964— the number of cows and heifers inseminated being about 825,000, or about 60 per cent of the total number, as compared with about 700,000 in 1963. Inseminations from Friesian bulls showed a striking advance during the year and were the largest for any breed —being nearly 42 per cent of the total as compared with 30 per cent. in 1963. Progeny testing of the AI dairy bulls for milk and beef continues to make steady progress.

As envisaged in the Second Programme for Economic Expansion, further efforts have been in train to integrate the existing milk recording schemes for AI dairy bull progeny, pedigree dairy herds and herds in cow testing associations. I am confident from the progress now being made that an acceptable scheme of integration can be put into operation by next year.

On the dairying side, I may say that milk production is steadily increasing and each year that passes is producing its own record figure. In 1964 the milk supply to creameries reached the all-time high of 362 million gallons or 7.3 per cent above the 1963 figure. So far this year the supply is about 16 per cent above that of the early months of last year and while this percentage increase should be scaled down somewhat as the peak period approaches, it is confidently expected that the current year will show an increase of a further 30 million gallons at least. At this rate of progress the target of 550 million gallons of milk to be supplied to creameries in 1970, is well on the way to being achieved.

Progress reported; Committee to sit again.
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