Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme 2024

Minister for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue, has announced that the 2024 Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme will open in March. Speaking on Thursday, Minister McConalogue reiterated that the scheme will “support the use of high dairy beef index sires in the dairy herd using either a stock bull or AI (artificial insemination)”.

It seems that the new scheme will be well financed, with a €6 million budget available to DAFM.

An opportunity to improve beef traits in calves?

This confirmation comes on the heels of the Budget 2024 announcement, when Minister McConalogue stated that his department had been allocated €700 million to fund the various agri-environment initiatives. The Minister hailed the new Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme as an opportunity to improve the beef traits of calves.

“This measure is designed to focus on improving the beef traits of calves to facilitate their retention on the island for better integration of those animals into local production system,” he said.

Seminar on future of dairy-beef sector

The Minister was speaking at a seminar about the future of the dairy calf-to-beef sector. The meeting, which took place in Portlaoise on the 18th of January, has been described by participants as a “high-level seminar”. Its aim is to draw attention to the potential of dairy calf to beef systems for interested farmers.

The event was organized in the context of agreements made by stakeholders in Food Vision 2030, which committed to the development and support of dairy-beef systems. The seminar promised to launch a consultation process for a draft action plan to support dairy-beef systems in Ireland.