Minister Must Provide €300 Per Cow in Next Week’s Budget

IFA Livestock Chair Declan Hanrahan said the Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon must build supports for suckler farmers in next week’s Budget to the €300/cow commitment he and his party gave to farmers in their election manifesto.

Declan Hanrahan said a critical part of this funding is through national exchequer funding which must be allocated each year in the Budget.

“€28m was provided in last year’s Budget to bring payments to €225/cow for the first 22 cows this year.  This must be built on to bring the payment to €300/cow for all suckler cows.”

The IFA livestock chairman said the suckler sector has lost over 250,000 cows in the last ten years.

Suckler farming is based on small-scale vulnerable farms, predominantly on the west coast of Ireland. They are heavily dependent on direct supports for Family Farm Income, with this dependence at 132% for 2024 alone.

Declan Hanrahan said the viability and long-term sustainability of suckler farming is heavily reliant on the levels of direct support provided to the sector. Market prices are important, but suckler farmers do not have the financial capacity to invest long term on their farms with the volatility of market prices.

“We have had a good year this year where for the first time in most suckler farmers’ memory, we are getting a price that reflects the actual production costs on farms but there is no guarantee these prices will be available next year,” he said.

Declan Hanrahan said the Minister cannot shy away from the political commitment given to suckler farmers, nor can he attempt to justify failing to provide increased supports to suckler farmers based on one good year of sales from the sector.

He said suckler farmers took the Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon and his Government colleagues at their word when they all committed to increasing the supports to suckler farmers in advance of the last general election.

Next week’s Budget must be used by them to honour that commitment and bring payments to €300/cow.