€225 Suckler Cow Payment and Dairy Beef Calf Rearing Support Following Budget Announcement – IFA

IFA National Livestock Chair Declan Hanrahan said following yesterday’s budget announcement by the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue supports for next year for suckler cows have been increased up to €225/cow and funding provided for a dairy beef calf scheme.

Declan Hanrahan said the national exchequer funding of €28m provided for the Beef Welfare Scheme for 2025 represents an increase of €8m for the scheme which will bring payments under this scheme to €75/suckler cow and when combined with the SCEP scheme returns up to €225 per cow for next year.

He said the increase in payments of €25/cow is a recognition of IFA’s on -going campaign to secure €300/cow for suckler farmers and is a step in the right direction, but more will need to be done.

The IFA National Livestock Chair said the substantive issue now is to ensure there is no leakages of this vital additional support for suckler farmers and the requirements in the scheme must be practical, easy to implement on farms and not add any unnecessary cost or bureaucracy for suckler farmers.

Declan Hanrahan said this year’s Beef Welfare Scheme was a practical and beneficial scheme for suckler farmers and the scheme for next year must follow a similar vein but must have the ceiling of 40 cows removed to ensure all suckler farmers are supported equally based on the numbers of cows they have.

He said the increased funding announced for the Dairy Beef Scheme must be utilised to provide a scheme for farmers rearing dairy beef calves, he said failure to provide a scheme for this purpose this year was a mistake which must be addressed with the additional funding for next year.

He said IFA will be engaging with the Department of Agriculture to ensure these objectives are achieved in the design of both schemes for next year.