BVD Eradication Programme is ‘endless’ - Murphy
The Chairman of the ICMSA Dairy Committee, Noel Murphy, has been forthright in his comments on the seemingly endless Bovine Virus Diarrhoea Eradication Programme and has demanded that the new Minister for Agriculture, Food & the Marine Martin Heydon informs farmers when compulsory tissue tag testing will end.
“Following on from an adjourned BVD Implementation Group meeting in October, the members of that group contacted the minister [Charlie McConalogue then]and communicated our conviction that it’s time for some hard questions and straight answers around the funding for a programme that is ongoing for nearly twelve years following an initial voluntary phase during 2012,” he said.
Whilst there are provisions for animal health, including BVD in the Budget, it is now time that farmers were informed what the outcome is likely to be.
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O’Connell: SCEP not performing as proposed
As he sent out a message reminding all participants in the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme that Wednesday next is the final date for amending 2025 or Year 3 reference numbers, it is also necessary to evaluate the actual benefits of the measure, Chairman of the ICMSA Livestock Committee Michael O’Connell said.
“Participants should weigh up the pros and cons of any amendment, as it may have implications in terms of payment received for 2025 and achieving the female replacement strategy action for 2025 where at least 65% of the yearly reference number must be four or five star on the replacement index at the time of purchase or at the time of genotyping,” he reminded the farmers involved. Regrettably though, it is evident that this scheme is underperforming and it contains a number of design flaws. These can be rectified, though, given the will to do so.
“The removal and dropout rate of the scheme for 2023 and 2024 is farcical,” he complained.
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