The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association (ICMSA) has welcomed the announcement of the Dairy Beef Weighing Measure, despite what it called the "modest sums" involved.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine confirmed yesterday that the €4 million National Dairy Beef Weighing Scheme was open for applications.

The National Dairy Beef Weighing Scheme is a successor to similar schemes which operated in 2021, 2022 and 2023, and were aimed at providing a diversification option for beef farmers.

Participants in the scheme will be required to weigh eligible calves and submit weight data to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF).

To qualify for payment, liveweight data must be submitted for a minimum of five calves in a herd and for a maximum of 50. All calves must be at least 12 weeks old at the time of weighing.

Michael O’Connell, the chairperson of the ICMSA Livestock Committee, said the measure represented another step towards the development of a "vibrant win-win-win dairy beef sector".

The €20/head is available to either the breeder of the calf who keeps the calf for a defined period, or the rearer of the calf.

O’Connell said that both parties, breeder and rearer, needed to be paid, and that calf-to-beef systems have become "very specialised and involve a slow return on investment due to the timeframe between buying calves and time of slaughter".

He said the scheme was straightforward and "is essentially an online box-ticking exercise" on the department's Agfood portal.

However, with a budget allocation of €4 million for the scheme, which will cater for 200,000 calves, O’Connell indicated that there is a distinct possibility that each farmer may not receive the payment on all eligible calves, due to the number of calves being reared on farms this year.

"Bluntly, we are disappointed by this kind of penny-pinching, and it’s emblematic of the ‘two-steps-forward-one step-back’ attitude the department has to a sector that could really make a difference on a number of fronts," the ICMSA livestock chairperson said.

"The ICMSA would urge the minister to use the underspends in other schemes to ensure that all eligible calves are paid the full amount – itself a very modest headage payment," he said.

With both the new weighing scheme and the separate Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme, O'Connell said there is "real potential here".

"This is picking up pace and gaining momentum, and that’s despite the very modest support that’s been given," he added.