There are nearly 4 million sheep in the country, many of them grazing free on hillsides, destroying the growth of native broadleaf trees.
Raising sheep is not even all that profitable anymore. Why not cull them? And unlike beef, which would be substituted with Brazilian cattle. Lamb and mutten can be sourced right here in the EU.
Would you eat a cow to meet climate targets?
So….Are Irish farmers willing to do anything to pollute less?
Farmers KILLING cows? No way
There’s little point in forcing farmers into reducing our beef and dairy herd if it results in us importing the same food from far away countries like Brazil, which have poorer farming practices, higher emissions per animal and awful animal welfare conditions. If we are insistent in continuing to consuming the same amount of beef and dairy, it should be sourced locally.
We, as a society, should be considering reducing our consumption of animal products but let’s not force our farmers to reduce output here if it results in increased imports of the same products.
They’ve been expanding their herd numbers since 2011. All the while saying the industry is on its knees and can’t afford cuts. All the messaging from the farming sector ignores this.
So we cull Irish beef and dairy.
A gap in the market will open across Europe? Where will this gap be filled from?
Beef from cattle bread in Brazil on land burned down from rainforests to be shipped across the world.
How is this better for the climate? Sure we’ll meet our targets. Well done Ireland
But reducing the herd could actually increase emissions on a worldwide scale.
No I don’t have an data or sources. But it’s just what I think could happen and what people should think about.
We are great beef and dairy farmers and I think we do it a hell of a lot more sustainably than other countries. Why cull the herd so they can fill the void with products that cause more emissions.
Yeah so? When did the Irishman come to worship the cow like a goddess? Was it since the milk quotas were lifted?
>The work is 24/7, Scully says. “You have to love it otherwise you wouldn’t do it.” He hopes his teenage son will become the fourth generation Scully to raise cows but says climate targets could imperil the farm’s future.
That’s just a lifestyle argument. The bankruptcy of farmers has been imminent for a hundred years ever since they figured out ways to game the system.
>Donald Scully gazes at his herd of 208 cows munching grass and clover in a verdant field, as a light breeze ruffles the stillness.
>“There is an enjoyment for me to come out and look and see how healthy and happy these cows are,” says Scully, 47, a third-generation dairy farmer. “Every single cow has her own personality, they’re all individuals.”
That’s nice, I wonder how long before they’re killed for meat, or killed because they can’t produce milk anymore.
Jesus christ these comments. All we’ve done over the last 40 fucking years in this kip of a country is swap prophets for profits. I’m so fucking sick and tired of seeing the average Irish person having to pay so that rich fucks that don’t even live in this country can continue to increase their profits year after year. The only green this fucking government is interested in, is fucking money. Their only interest in climate change, are marketable solutions that will earn their friends even more money. They’re nothing but fucking traitors to the Irish people.
Irish farmers constantly cull cows. They’d just stop replacing them.
Do these lads just cross fingers and hope nobody knows how farming works when they say this stuff
Did anyone else cop the same farmer who has “multiplied his herd five-fold” since the 90’s, is now saying about reducing herd numbers: “It’s all happening so quickly, and they’re looking for results so fast. Sometimes you would be better moving slow and doing it right.” Seems pretty hypocritical to me.
Both dairy and beef cattle are destined for slaughter at a small fraction of their natural lifespan—we slaughter about [115 million](https://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/agriculture/livestockslaughterings/) land animals annually in Ireland. The term “cull” is being used by livestock farmers to appeal to the public and imply that environmentalism is the only reason these animals are going to be slaughtered, which of course is untrue.
Producing meat is inefficient. It requires more energy, land, and water resources than for an equivalent amount of crops, and despite claims that our livestock are grass-fed, we import about [1.7 million tonnes of soya and maize](https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/animals/beef/concentrate-feeds.pdf) for animal feed annually.
The solution is to simply stop breeding more livestock into existence, and to redirect subsidies to encourage farmers to switch to crop agriculture. There’s more than enough productive land in Ireland to feed the population and to produce crops for export, and unproductive land could be re-wilded. If that were done, we might actually see some forest on this island again—we currently have some of the [lowest rates of forest cover](https://efi.int/sites/default/files/styles/content_fill_w100_x_auto/public/images/maps/forestmap5_50dpi.png?itok=DUlggNZ1) of any country in Europe.
Animal agriculture is a cruel, unsustainable, environmentally devastating industry that produces unnecessary and largely unhealthy products. The sooner it ends, the better.
Every farmer I know is currently lamenting the lack of grass growth this year, between that and increase costs on everything else the herd is going to need culling anyway.
Can we not just switch large scale farming efforts to crops for humans rather than cows? Stupid vegetarian question here.
The targets are a lie. The way they calculate emission’s is a lie. The whole thing is bollox. Protect our farmers.
> Other sectors face even higher targets – transport must reduce emissions by 50%, commercial and public buildings by 40% – but the loudest protests have come from farmers.
Sounds familiar.
Or breed less?
Don’t they ‘cull’ them anyway when they are ‘spent’ and finished making milk, finished being forcibly impregnated and then sent to the ‘factory’ to be ‘culled’ ????
Ah god love them, everything is always so much harder for them than it is for anyone else.
Funny how people here are fine with exporting our farming emissions yet any criticism of data centers and it’s “b-b-but if we have no data centers the whole internet shuts down!”.
Yet the demand for meat will still be met, just by someone else. So why can’t we get other countries to host the data centers too?
This is a misdirection.
The cattle herd is maxed out already and has been for years. There’s going to be a cull because of there’s a lack of affordable feed not because of climate shite.
Have a friend in DOA and they get so angry when anything to do with climate change is mentioned. Usually really chill on all topics but CC is their kryptonite. Money makes the world go round so with the right incentives/disincentives, they will evolve…
Allow us to keep damaging the climate, demand farmers.
Better than burning them alive on a scorched earth if
I know the argument about Brazil beef is rolled out everytime this topic is brought up but if Irish farmers are starting to already use silage due to lack of fresh grass for the current herd size what will happen in the winter and other winters if this is a pattern? Do we get the government to import fodder? Not going to happen if Europe continues to get severe droughts. Or maybe the IFA expects the government to import fodder from beyond Europe? Adding more of a carbon footprint and risk of importing pests and diseases in the fodder. Or perhaps we get the Brazilians to clear more rainforest for animal feed?
There’s ways of making farming more sustainable but I never ever see the IFA push those methods as a compromise, like ever, or fund any research onto any of this at all.
Here are a few things off the bat that farmers could do, that wouldn’t cost the earth to do
* have more trees in a field. Fields are completely empty of any life having trees in them would help sequester co2 into the soil and trees themselves do too. Have a rule like you need x amounts of trees across your fields per cow. They don’t do that, though, as cows like to relax under trees. That’s time they spend not eating.
* crop rotation and legumes – in uni some of my lecturers were elbowing at crop rotation and more legumes into castles diet. It was apparently v good for soil health and the ciws emitted less methane.
* seaweed in cows diet – not sure if it’d an idea gone to market, but allegedly incorporating some seaweed into a cows diet reduces methane emissions
* crop rotation again – means they are less reliant on slurry fir fertilising fields ans nitrates get replenished. Less water pollution
These solutions aren’t perfect, and could be put of date as its been a decade since my degree and masters, but there are things there that could really help that aren’t expensive. If the IFA cared they could push for then to become the normal, and ask for government subsides fir it, which I’d support. They also have a fuck tonne of money. Why do they not have a serious climate resilience research department? They could easily afford the few mill a year that it would cost to have a lot of cutting edge research projects.
You kill ‘em, I grill ‘em
Do it
The world consumes X kg of beef everyday.
When we produce less, Brazil will produce more to make up the difference.
Do they think the climate gives a fuck?! This is moronic.
30 comments
There are nearly 4 million sheep in the country, many of them grazing free on hillsides, destroying the growth of native broadleaf trees.
Raising sheep is not even all that profitable anymore. Why not cull them? And unlike beef, which would be substituted with Brazilian cattle. Lamb and mutten can be sourced right here in the EU.
Would you eat a cow to meet climate targets?
So….Are Irish farmers willing to do anything to pollute less?
Farmers KILLING cows? No way
There’s little point in forcing farmers into reducing our beef and dairy herd if it results in us importing the same food from far away countries like Brazil, which have poorer farming practices, higher emissions per animal and awful animal welfare conditions. If we are insistent in continuing to consuming the same amount of beef and dairy, it should be sourced locally.
We, as a society, should be considering reducing our consumption of animal products but let’s not force our farmers to reduce output here if it results in increased imports of the same products.
They’ve been expanding their herd numbers since 2011. All the while saying the industry is on its knees and can’t afford cuts. All the messaging from the farming sector ignores this.
So we cull Irish beef and dairy.
A gap in the market will open across Europe? Where will this gap be filled from?
Beef from cattle bread in Brazil on land burned down from rainforests to be shipped across the world.
How is this better for the climate? Sure we’ll meet our targets. Well done Ireland
But reducing the herd could actually increase emissions on a worldwide scale.
No I don’t have an data or sources. But it’s just what I think could happen and what people should think about.
We are great beef and dairy farmers and I think we do it a hell of a lot more sustainably than other countries. Why cull the herd so they can fill the void with products that cause more emissions.
Yeah so? When did the Irishman come to worship the cow like a goddess? Was it since the milk quotas were lifted?
>The work is 24/7, Scully says. “You have to love it otherwise you wouldn’t do it.” He hopes his teenage son will become the fourth generation Scully to raise cows but says climate targets could imperil the farm’s future.
That’s just a lifestyle argument. The bankruptcy of farmers has been imminent for a hundred years ever since they figured out ways to game the system.
>Donald Scully gazes at his herd of 208 cows munching grass and clover in a verdant field, as a light breeze ruffles the stillness.
>“There is an enjoyment for me to come out and look and see how healthy and happy these cows are,” says Scully, 47, a third-generation dairy farmer. “Every single cow has her own personality, they’re all individuals.”
That’s nice, I wonder how long before they’re killed for meat, or killed because they can’t produce milk anymore.
Jesus christ these comments. All we’ve done over the last 40 fucking years in this kip of a country is swap prophets for profits. I’m so fucking sick and tired of seeing the average Irish person having to pay so that rich fucks that don’t even live in this country can continue to increase their profits year after year. The only green this fucking government is interested in, is fucking money. Their only interest in climate change, are marketable solutions that will earn their friends even more money. They’re nothing but fucking traitors to the Irish people.
Irish farmers constantly cull cows. They’d just stop replacing them.
Do these lads just cross fingers and hope nobody knows how farming works when they say this stuff
Did anyone else cop the same farmer who has “multiplied his herd five-fold” since the 90’s, is now saying about reducing herd numbers: “It’s all happening so quickly, and they’re looking for results so fast. Sometimes you would be better moving slow and doing it right.” Seems pretty hypocritical to me.
Both dairy and beef cattle are destined for slaughter at a small fraction of their natural lifespan—we slaughter about [115 million](https://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/agriculture/livestockslaughterings/) land animals annually in Ireland. The term “cull” is being used by livestock farmers to appeal to the public and imply that environmentalism is the only reason these animals are going to be slaughtered, which of course is untrue.
Producing meat is inefficient. It requires more energy, land, and water resources than for an equivalent amount of crops, and despite claims that our livestock are grass-fed, we import about [1.7 million tonnes of soya and maize](https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/animals/beef/concentrate-feeds.pdf) for animal feed annually.
The solution is to simply stop breeding more livestock into existence, and to redirect subsidies to encourage farmers to switch to crop agriculture. There’s more than enough productive land in Ireland to feed the population and to produce crops for export, and unproductive land could be re-wilded. If that were done, we might actually see some forest on this island again—we currently have some of the [lowest rates of forest cover](https://efi.int/sites/default/files/styles/content_fill_w100_x_auto/public/images/maps/forestmap5_50dpi.png?itok=DUlggNZ1) of any country in Europe.
Animal agriculture is a cruel, unsustainable, environmentally devastating industry that produces unnecessary and largely unhealthy products. The sooner it ends, the better.
Every farmer I know is currently lamenting the lack of grass growth this year, between that and increase costs on everything else the herd is going to need culling anyway.
Can we not just switch large scale farming efforts to crops for humans rather than cows? Stupid vegetarian question here.
The targets are a lie. The way they calculate emission’s is a lie. The whole thing is bollox. Protect our farmers.
> Other sectors face even higher targets – transport must reduce emissions by 50%, commercial and public buildings by 40% – but the loudest protests have come from farmers.
Sounds familiar.
Or breed less?
Don’t they ‘cull’ them anyway when they are ‘spent’ and finished making milk, finished being forcibly impregnated and then sent to the ‘factory’ to be ‘culled’ ????
Ah god love them, everything is always so much harder for them than it is for anyone else.
Funny how people here are fine with exporting our farming emissions yet any criticism of data centers and it’s “b-b-but if we have no data centers the whole internet shuts down!”.
Yet the demand for meat will still be met, just by someone else. So why can’t we get other countries to host the data centers too?
This is a misdirection.
The cattle herd is maxed out already and has been for years. There’s going to be a cull because of there’s a lack of affordable feed not because of climate shite.
Have a friend in DOA and they get so angry when anything to do with climate change is mentioned. Usually really chill on all topics but CC is their kryptonite. Money makes the world go round so with the right incentives/disincentives, they will evolve…
Allow us to keep damaging the climate, demand farmers.
Better than burning them alive on a scorched earth if
I know the argument about Brazil beef is rolled out everytime this topic is brought up but if Irish farmers are starting to already use silage due to lack of fresh grass for the current herd size what will happen in the winter and other winters if this is a pattern? Do we get the government to import fodder? Not going to happen if Europe continues to get severe droughts. Or maybe the IFA expects the government to import fodder from beyond Europe? Adding more of a carbon footprint and risk of importing pests and diseases in the fodder. Or perhaps we get the Brazilians to clear more rainforest for animal feed?
There’s ways of making farming more sustainable but I never ever see the IFA push those methods as a compromise, like ever, or fund any research onto any of this at all.
Here are a few things off the bat that farmers could do, that wouldn’t cost the earth to do
* have more trees in a field. Fields are completely empty of any life having trees in them would help sequester co2 into the soil and trees themselves do too. Have a rule like you need x amounts of trees across your fields per cow. They don’t do that, though, as cows like to relax under trees. That’s time they spend not eating.
* crop rotation and legumes – in uni some of my lecturers were elbowing at crop rotation and more legumes into castles diet. It was apparently v good for soil health and the ciws emitted less methane.
* seaweed in cows diet – not sure if it’d an idea gone to market, but allegedly incorporating some seaweed into a cows diet reduces methane emissions
* crop rotation again – means they are less reliant on slurry fir fertilising fields ans nitrates get replenished. Less water pollution
These solutions aren’t perfect, and could be put of date as its been a decade since my degree and masters, but there are things there that could really help that aren’t expensive. If the IFA cared they could push for then to become the normal, and ask for government subsides fir it, which I’d support. They also have a fuck tonne of money. Why do they not have a serious climate resilience research department? They could easily afford the few mill a year that it would cost to have a lot of cutting edge research projects.
You kill ‘em, I grill ‘em
Do it
The world consumes X kg of beef everyday.
When we produce less, Brazil will produce more to make up the difference.
Do they think the climate gives a fuck?! This is moronic.