I wish to second the motion. In this motion the words "in present day conditions" are used. When we speak of present day conditions, the first thing we ask ourselves is where do we stand or where do we go from here because since General de Gaulle used the guillotine these questions are being asked throughout the length and breadth of this country, England and Europe. The matter has been discussed in detail and diverging opinions are being expressed. There are some people in this country who seem to be relieved that Britain was not allowed into the Common Market. I believe that it would have been much better for the farmers of this country if we were allowed in. I believe that the welfare of the farmers of this nation is so intimately bound up with the immense issues which are torturing the people of England, Ireland, Europe and all those who love freedom and who were prepared to co-operate for the good of all, that I hope, perhaps, General de Gaulle will relent and allow us all to join this combination of nations, which we all agree would lead to greater prosperity both for the farmers of this country and for the whole nation.
I think that today more than ever before in this country we need a dynamic agricultural policy and we should not appear to be weak or rudderless. The farmers of Ireland have answered the call in the past. They have been in the front line trenches in different wars, national, social and economic. The fact that we have not been allowed into the Common Market is no reason why we should not still concentrate in this country upon increasing production and on producing the best. We must be up and doing. The shock, perhaps, to our hopes and aspirations may be severe but under wise direction and with a proper lead there is no reason why we cannot, and should not, overcome the difficulties that may confront us. The farmers of this country in my opinion must intensify their efforts. They must produce more. They must produce the very best and be fully prepared for whatever the future may hold for us.
When the 1925 Livestock Breeding Bill was introduced by the late Paddy Hogan on the 22nd July, 1924, it aimed at making provision for the regulation and improvement of bulls and other livestock for breeding. The Act could by Order be extended to boars and rams and that was done. The general standard of our livestock had improved up to then but in order to eliminate the very considerable number of unsuitable animals, especially scrub bulls, in this country at that time, it was necessary to give the Minister those powers.
We agree that that Act has worked very well. Wonderful progress has been made since as regards breeding et cetera but I think we all have to agree that intelligent breeding cannot of itself bring us to the standards we desire. We must combine with it efficiency and careful and economical feeding.
To a certain extent I believe in individualism in business—I am not a wholehogger in the matter. While the farmer himself has the more direct interest in his own solvency the State can be of very great assistance to him. The Minister for Agriculture has to devise a wise policy and then try to get it across to the farmers of the country. We are told, and I suppose we will be told, that the farmers of Ireland are conservative and lacking in initiative. Perhaps, they are slow to adopt new methods. It takes them a length of time but still through our agricultural instructors wonderful progress has been made in the past and I suppose it can be made in the future.
Even if a new Bill were introduced or certain sections of this Bill were changed, it is more by education than by direct coercive methods that the State can achieve the ideal for which we would all aim: to produce better cattle, better cows, better pigs and better sheep. For the future and better development of the livestock industry and in order to exploit our potential, our farmers must produce the highest quality animals. For that a national stud farm is necessary to provide a reservoir for high class progeny of all breeds. We have it for the racehorse industry. That is a very valuable industry. It gives employment and brings a lot of money into the country, but the beef industry is much more important and it would be a very good idea if we had a national stud farm for beef.
Realisation of the value of various forms of feeding and breeding in terms of economic conversion rates is necessary. The efficiency of the livestock industry is a matter of great importance and if we had such a farm we could get all this vital information.
Over the years our cattle have been vastly improved but I still think the country needs better cattle and cows that will produce better beef. The quality of our pigs has been below that of Denmark. I do know that vast improvements have been made in that direction during the past few years but up to six or eight months ago our pork and bacon were selling on the British market at from 10/-to 15/- below even that of bacon imported from as far away as Holland and that should not be because we are on the doorstep. If we produced proper quality our bacon should fetch the same price as home produced bacon in Britain.
Our present rate of improvement in cattle and sheep breeding is far from satisfactory. Pig breeding is definitely improving and I want to give the Department full credit for that. I believe that the Agricultural Institute have started a breeding and research programme that is showing real promise and credit should also be given to them for that, but we have a long way to go and a lot of leeway to make up if we are to establish an effective organisation to use modern breeding methods to develop our dairy cows, beef cattle and sheep.
It has been done in other countries. In recent years Britain has tackled this problem. We learn that in Britain at the present time a dynamic programme of dairy cow improvement based on artificial insemination has been organised by the Milk Marketing Board. It is supposed to be the most advanced in Europe. Early in November, 1962, a comprehensive scheme for the improvement of beef and sheep breeding was also initiated there. Very often in the past we co-operated with Britain in the eradication of tuberculosis and in various other projects and perhaps we could learn something from them in this direction.
The Farmers' Journal of 12-2-1963 had this to say:
I am told that England is making progress in establishing a Beef Production Authority with official support and official backing. The Authority will encourage better beef breeding, through recording and progeny testing; it will help in the development, and introduction to practice, of improved beef producing techniques. As a country whose economy is still based largely on beef, we should also be endeavouring to improve our beef farming.
In meat production today poultry and pigmeat are surpassing beef in improved food economy and lower cost techniques. It would be very wrong to allow beef to lag too far behind.
As beef is so important in our national economy I believe we should be up and doing. We should be doing all we can to improve our beef. Ireland cannot afford to ignore these developments which are taking place in other countries if we are to improve or maintain our competitive position in animal products. Those are the countries to which we are exporting 90 per cent. of our cattle and if Britain is improving its stock—and livestock is not nearly as important in its national economy as it is in ours—we should be spending as much as the State can afford on improving our beef, on cattle and also on sheep breeding. We are still too much inclined to adhere to old incorrect methods of selection. Modern genetics have much to offer us in these fields but unlike the French, and in recent years the British, we have been wanton in our disregard of these possibilities and the sooner we wake up to that the better. The opportunities offered to us in the food markets of the free trade area that will develop in the years ahead will be lost to us if we continue to lag behind, especially if we lag behind Britain and Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland has also started recently to improve its beef.
It is a well known fact that on the Continent what is wanted is small lean type of beef and the same applies to sheep.
Any man exporting sheep today will tell you that they want a small lamb that is about 40 lbs. deadweight. The majority of the farmers are inclined to feed them to 50 lbs. or 60 lbs. I suppose, in the national interest, we shall have to try to market them much younger when there is more lean on them and less fat because the longer we keep them the more fat they put on. Our customers, even in England, do not want it at present. Certainly, in France and Germany, they are all inclined toward the leaner type of beef.
The dairy cow is very important to our Irish economy. In dairy cow breeding we lack an adequate progeny testing service. Still less is there any near prospect of having dairy breed artificial insemination confined to proven bulls as the Milk Marketing Board envisage. The present low fat content of milk produced by Irish cows, relative to those of Europe, will put our dairy farmers in a position of definite disadvantage compared with the farmers of those countries. We know that a factory was lost recently to Ireland because we were not producing the type of milk they needed. Yet, we do not seem to have a plan for a rapid improvement in the fat and protein content of our milk and I believe we should have such a plan.
Another dairy creamery production season has come to an end. The main lesson, I think, of the past year is that Ireland has an immense potential in the production of milk but positive planning is necessary if this potential is to be realised and if the produce is to sell at maximum advantage. There is no use in producing extra milk and extra butter if we have not a proper market for it and if we have to spend £2,000,000 or £3,000,000 of the taxpayers' money in exporting it. If we improve our dairy herds and our dairy cows and produce milk with higher fat and protein contents we could turn over to what we could sell much better on the markets in Europe, and even in England today, namely, cheese. There is a good market on our doorstep here to produce cheese if we had the proper milk to produce it.
In developing industry, we need the full confidence of producers but it must also be tied to the production of our quality milk which can be processed into the best paying products on the market and I think one of the best paying products at present is cheese. This will mean, if we want to do that, a marked improvement in the over-all quality of Irish creamery milk and improvement in my opinion can only be attained if an active programme is embarked upon. The farmer must be told, I believe, the principles of quality milk production.
We want a much higher quality milk produced on the general run of Irish farms. If we have not such milk, our dairying industry will be unduly restricted in production lines and the competitive period which lies ahead——
