The Individual Farmers of Ireland (IFI) has threatened to "take to the streets and motorways to protest" if efforts to "close down the national suckler herd" continue.

In a statement today (Tuesday, August 24), a spokesperson for the group - best known for organising tractor demonstration protests in Dublin in 2019 and January 2020 over beef prices - said:

"The Individual Farmers tractor protest group is calling on the Department of Agriculture to stop trying to close down the national suckler herd."

"We will not accept any cap or cut to the suckler herd which will make farms unviable," the group spokesperson said.

Claiming that draft new proposals put forward for a new suckler scheme will make suckler farms "unviable while Brazil increases their herd by 2.5 million head a year", the group said that, if suckler farmers are put out of business, this would have a "detrimental effect on the economy of rural Ireland".

Turning to the current demographic of cattle rearing, the IFI highlighted that the national suckler herd has fallen by an estimated "80,000 cows in the last three years", adding:

"The average age profile of suckler farmers is in their late 60s and a lot of suckler farmers have reduced cow numbers to reduce their workload."

Homing in on the proposed new ‘Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme’ in particular, the group highlighted that as things stand participants would be prevented from increasing their suckler cow numbers - but if they reduce numbers this lower number becomes the new reference number:

Rejecting the stated reason behind this rule in the proposed scheme - to lower emissions - the IFI argued: "The department has no scientific evidence to prove this theory.

"The average suckler herd is 17 cows, mostly based in the west of Ireland where they are stocked on marginal land at up to 3ac per cow."

This grass area is a huge carbon sink and it takes the suckler cow to graze it and keep the grass growing and sequencing carbon," the group claimed.

The group also stressed that a growing global population needs to be fed, which farmers are trying to do.

A major issue flagged by the tractor protest group was a concern over the accuracy of the agricultural emissions figure.

The group argued that carbon emissions from the sector were counted - but no figures for carbon sequestration were given to offset any emissions.

As a result, the IFI said: "The government need to start accepting that the figure of 33% of emissions from agriculture is not an accurate figure."

If sequestration figures were counted "suddenly farming is not the big bad wolf that the media and our government make farming out to be", the group claimed.

"This is a disgrace and it won’t be accepted by the farmers of Ireland any longer.

"If the farmers of Ireland have to take to the streets and motorways to protest over this totally unfair and unjust treatment and risks to our viability then that is what we will have to do," the group concluded.