Watch: O'Leary on how Green policy has driven up beef price
Ryanair CEO and owner of the Gigginstown Angus Herd Michael O'Leary has said he believes current beef prices are sustainable and that the significant rise in beef prices paid to farmers "was an inevitable consequence of a lot of the Green measures of recent years".
Speaking to Agriland ahead of his annual Gigginstown House Angus on-farm sale of pedigree Angus bulls and heifers on Saturday, April 19, O'Leary gave his outlook on the current state of play in the Irish beef trade.
He explained why he believes Green policy has driven up the cost of beef: "You've seen herd reductions in Ireland, in the UK and across Europe.
"The inevitable by-product of some of these kind of idiotic decisions was, there's a scarcity value, you're going to drive up the cost of beef."
He believes that "the market will respond" to the strong beef prices. "As long as there's no more green interference in it, supplies will rise.
"I would argue beef has been under-priced for the last 15 or 20 years. It's been, in many respects, too cheap."
Agriland asked the airline boss what his message is to restaurant owners who have decided to remove beef, in particular fillet steak, from their menus due to the cost of purchasing the food product.
O'Leary responded: "I never yet met a restaurant owner who wasn't complaining, they're always complaining about something.
"Look, beef is an expensive product. It's a premium product. I don't see steaks disappearing off the menu in any restaurant. But there's no doubt that the cost of steak is becoming more and more expensive."
He noted that some restaurants are now charging a €10 supplement for steaks: "Fine, that's what you're going to have to do. Those of us who like eating beef are willing to pay that kind of premium.
"I think it's absolutely vital that the farmer gets a fair deal and I look forward to these rising prices. I think farmers have been struggling with prices, particularly into supermarkets, for many years.
"Dairy farmers have had a good run and it's time for the beef farmers to get a reasonable return on the incredibly hard work that they do."
The airline boss and pedigree Angus breeder said: "We're having the annual Gigginstown House Angus sale at Fennor Farm outside Mullingar on Easter Saturday, April 19.
"We're selling about 25 pedigree bulls and we have about 20 premium heifers. We have a very good mix of genetics, good Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) indexes, lots of four and five star bulls.
"They're ideal for pedigree breeders, but also for dairy farmers and our biggest outlet in recent years has been dairy farmers who want an easy-calving bull, but a beef-sired calf.
"I think one of the more noticeable trends in the last 12 months has been the strength of calf prices. The dairy man is getting a reasonable return for the dairy calves and I think that's good for everybody."
He commented on the advantages of using a pedigree Angus bull on dairy cows saying farmers get an easy-calving sire and the progeny qualifies for the Angus breed bonus which helps farmers get a premium on their calf prices.
"We have bulls ready to go and breed, but also some smaller bulls coming through as well and a super mix of of pedigree heifers.
"The heifers really appeal to pedigree breeders, the Gigginstown prefix is really strong. Stock bred by our bulls and our females are winning shows around the country and we continue to invest heavily in Gigginstown [Angus].
"Joe O'Mahoney and the team do a terrific job of producing high-quality animals and we're looking forward to what I hope will be a successful sale with something for everybody," he added.
He noted that in the last 30 years "there's been enormous advertising muscle put behind Angus".
He said: "Burger King have done a phenomenal job with the Aberdeen Angus designation" and also complimented the Certified Irish Angus beef programme.
"There's a lot of very good marketing and support for Angus and I think people increasingly regard Angus as a brand in its own right and are willing to pay a premium for Angus beef, whether it's steaks or other meat products, people are willing to pay that premium for high-quality Angus beef."
Agriland asked O'Leary if he would say his farm is more sustainable than it was 10 years ago. He said: "I'm not sure it's more sustainable, but it's certainly much more circular.
"The farm has expanded now to about 2,000ac so we have about 800ac of tillage, we're growing our own straw, we're growing our own feedstuffs for feeding our cattle. We're using the the farmyard manure (FYM) to spread on the fields.
"I am trying to move away from having to buy in fertiliser, having to buy in meal and feed, and to at least make it circular.
"We're learning all the time to try to make the whole thing more kind of circular-sustainable, rather than environmentally-sustainable.
"I think there's going to be a push back against a lot of the environmental nonsense. I have no faith in this idea that we should all reduce the size of the national herd. Anything that damages the supply of food will result in higher prices for consumers and I think that's a retrograde step."
Commenting on where he gets his farming inspiration from, O'Leary said: "We've looked at some of the bigger Scottish farms and how they go about making more, keeping the farm circular, supplying all your own needs on farm or within the farm.
"I'm fortunate that I've been able to go out and buy additional land, other people can't afford to do that but I'm in that fortunate position.
"I'm trying to make it not just sustainable and self-supporting but also run it at break-even.
"I don't ever expect to make a lot of money farming but I don't want to lose any money either."
