EU agriculture ministers have agreed to a request from Ireland that the winter slaughter premium for beef farmers be retained but at a lower level of payment.
Beef farmers had been paid £60 for each animal for holding their beef cattle for sale until after January 1st every year, to address the problem of the high sale of animals before Christmas every year.
The deseasonalisation premium was introduced as part of the last round of CAP reform to help farmers hold their animals until after January 1st, which brought balance to the market.
The scheme was highly popular and in a short period, the level of cattle being presented for sale before January each year, fell from nearly 60 per cent to just 31 per cent last year.
This level of processing did not meet the EU criteria laid down and there was a danger that the scheme, which had been a victim of its own success, would be discontinued. Yesterday at a meeting in Luxembourg, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, persuaded his colleagues to allow the scheme to continue. They agreed it should but at a reduced level. The premium has been reduced from £60 to £36. The agreement that the scheme continue was part of the farm price package on which negotiations are expected to be concluded early today.
A Department of Agriculture spokesman said the new premium should be worth £16 million annually to Irish beef farmers.
Earlier this week the main farming organisations, the Irish Farmers Association and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, the that Minister of a beef price collapse if the scheme was not continued.
Mr Tom Parlon, the IFA president, said failure to secure it would be a severe blow for the farmers who fed cattle over the winter and they could not afford any more setbacks.
Mr Frank Allen of the ICMSA said the absence of the premium could case a collapse in autumn beef prices.