The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has said that the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) is “underperforming” and being overtaken by high beef prices.
The window to amend 2025 yearly reference numbers is open until February 12. Where a participant does not wish to amend their 2025 yearly reference number from their 2024 yearly reference number then no action is required.
The reference number is based on the participant’s average suckler cow number from 2016 to 2021 and can be reduced by up to 20% for scheme year 2025 of their 2024 reference number.
ICMSA livestock committee chair Michael O’Connell said that participants should “weigh up the pros and cons” of any amendment as it may have implications in terms of payment received for 2025.
The livestock chair described the removal and dropout rate of the efficiency programme as “farcical” and said there were “a series of design flaws”.
“4,500 or just over 20% of farmers who originally signed up to the scheme have either been removed or have voluntarily left SCEP. Certainly suckler farmers do not see the benefit of being an SBLAS member which is accounting for 52% of these dropouts”, O’Connell said.
“Another obvious reason for the relative underperformance of SCEP was the ridiculous insistence on an online and in person training course.
“The average Irish suckler farmer is well over 60 years of age and expecting that age profile to do an online course was just not feasible given their tech proficiency or even access to computers,” O’Connell said.
He added that ICMSA members from counties Clare and Galway had to travel distances of 60 or 70 miles to attend the course before additional courses were created.
Another “unattractive” element of the scheme described by O’Connell was the requirement for farmers to source a weighing scales for the day of inspections, while also submitting weights to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF).
“Realistically, how many farmers have their own weighing scales? If they don’t, they have to rent one with the costs and additionally a biosecurity risk,” O’Connell said.
O’Connell added that the female replacement strategy action for 2025, where participants must increase from 50% in 2023 to 65%, will create “another exodus from the scheme”.