The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association (ICSA) is calling on Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue to immediately announce an allocation of €50 million to fund ICSA’s Beef Carbon Efficiency Scheme.

The proposed scheme was set out as part of the association’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Strategic Plan subsmission.

ICSA president Dermot Kelleher said: “The minister is now talking about reducing the average slaughter age from 27 to 24 months.

“It is all the more challenging when many of the beef finishers that are expected to deliver this monumental change, are among the hardest hit by convergence cuts to their Pillar I payments."

The ICSA has said that its proposal provides a practical route to achieving this goal but it must be included as part of the CAP Strategic Plan.

Under the ICSA plan, farmers would get a payment of up to €100/head for prime beef finished earlier.

The payment will consist of two elements - €40 for weighing stores, and up to €60 for getting heifers, steers or young bulls slaughtered early.

The targets would be 22-26 months for heifers, 24-28 months for steers, and 16-22 months for bulls. The earlier the slaughter, the higher the payment.

Kelleher also said agreements made by the EU at COP26 (the global climate conference taking place in Glasgow), to cut emissions of methane by 30% by 2030 are pointless unless Brazil is on board.

"Irish farmers will however play their part, but we are looking to Minister McConalogue to support beef farmers in doing that, and ICSA’s Beef Carbon Efficiency Scheme proposal is the only logical way to do that," he concluded.