asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if he will arrange to subsidise feeding material (details supplied) for a period of four months to enable owners of store cattle and small holders to save the stock that will otherwise die as the owners cannot afford to buy a sufficient quantity due to the high prices.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Animal Feedingstuffs.
204.
While supplies of feed for livestock have created difficulties for some farmers recently a subsidy on sales of compound feedingstuffs during the coming months would be neither practicable nor necessary.
Is the Minister aware at this late stage that cattle in the south of Ireland are dying in their hundreds? A friend of mine travelling in the south recently saw 17 cattle dead in one field. Is the Minister aware that there is a crisis?
According to the information I have, there is a scarcity, not a crisis.
The people from whom the Minister is getting information must be asleep.
205.
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if he will make a statement regarding the shortage of fodder for cattle.
206.
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries the number of cattle believed lost as a result of scarcity of fodder.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 205 and 206 together.
The quality and yields of both hay and silage last year were extremely variable and generally below normal. Because of this and the increased numbers of cattle to be fed over the winter supplies of fodder on some farms were not sufficient to meet requirements. It has therefore been necessary for feeders to stretch their supplies of fodder by the use of meals of which there are adequate supplies available.
It is not possible to say to what extent malnutrition may have been a factor in mortality in cattle in recent months.
Would the Minister be able to give us an estimate of the number of cattle lost as a result of the scarcity of fodder?
No.
Not even an estimate?
Not an estimate.
Does the Minister's imagination run away with him when he says that he does not believe that the cattle are dying because of malnutrition?
The Deputy is engaging in argument.
207.
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if he will indicate the advice he gave cattle producers last August when the numbers of cattle of all ages had been reckoned; and when he was aware that the amount of good quality fodder conserved was less than usual.
I advised farmers last July that certain developments then taking place could result in cattle prices falling by up to £15 a head but of course I could not prophesy all the climatic, economic and political developments which have contributed in their various ways to the weakening of prices over recent months. If more cattle were sold while prices were still high—and farmers were free to make their own decisions on this in the light of the best advice I could give and the best assessment they could get otherwise of market prospects— there would obviously have been greater conservation of the winter fodder supplies that could normally be expected to be available.
Is the Minister not aware that he gave a guarantee that the price of cattle would not fall below £16 per cwt.?
I gave no such guarantee. I told the people that the intervention price for prime beef was £16 per cwt., and so it was.
How is it that cattle have fallen a long way short of £16?
Not prime cattle.
The Minister ought to go and tell that to the farmers who were selling cattle during January.
The Minister spoke about the results of certain developments. At the end of August would the Minister not have been in a position to say that the fodder position was not as good as it might have been, that the number of cattle had increased and that there was a great possibility of a crisis developing?
The Minister is not in any way responsible for the fodder situation. It is the individual responsibility of the farmers throughout the country. My answer to the last question said that I advised on £15. I did and I went farther. I said it could be more than £20 of a drop if certain things happened. Unfortunately certain things did happen, but the people did not sell.