The body representing the beef sector in the Irish Republic, has condemned a proposed cow cull scheme to bring the country into line with EU expectations on 'greening'.

Meat Industry Ireland (MII) said it would cost the Irish rural economy €1.5bn in beef output and result in 6500 meat sector job losses, with 14,500 farmers leaving the sector.

The recommendation to cull Irish beef cattle was set out in the 'Food Vision' beef report which MII chair, Philip Carroll, said would see 200,000 sucklers culled. He wanted to see greater investment in scientific and technological advanced aimed at reducing emissions and opposed the proposed cull.

However, chair of the Food Vision's beef and sheep chair, Professor Thia Hennessy, said it would be impossible to hit the legally binding 25% reduction in emissions targets without cutting cow numbers. She believed new technology is years away from being implemented and change is more urgent if the targets are to be met.

Read more: Irish Dairy report recommends paying dairy farmers €5000 to cull cows

Eire's Minister for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue, has so far refused to be drawn on his thoughts on the report and is holding meetings with representatives from the beef, sheep and dairy sectors.

The proposals in the report suggested farmers should receive a one-off income of €1080/cow for leaving the suckler sector. Alternatively, they are being offered €1350/cow for reducing numbers. The rates are such as to not incentivise reduction, but a calculation of income forgone – further sweeteners to tempt farmers to cut cow numbers could yet appear.

This year, the total number of beef cows fell by 2.9% to 913,000 whilst the dairy cow herd rose 1.4% to 1.6m head. Since 2017, the dairy herd had grown 14% whilst the suckler herd had fallen 16%.

Figures from the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation showed that, as of December 9, there were 802,107 suckler calves born in 2022, down from the previous year’s 826,320 in the same period. Suckler calves accounted for just 33.6% of calves born, compared to 10 years ago when they accounted for more than half.