Farmers Losing Out On Thousands Under TB Live Valuation Scheme – IFA

The IFA is calling for a commitment from the Minister for Agriculture giving farmers the opportunity to receive the market value of their animals when removed for disease purposes from their farms.

Prices for cattle in the marketplace are well above guideline prices compiled by the Department of Agriculture which valuers use to compensate farmers that have lost animals due to TB, according to the IFA. The organisation said that its analysis shows a disparity ranging from hundreds of euro for commercial animals to thousands for higher-merit animals.

In a statement on Thursday, IFA animal health chair Bert Stewart criticised the Department for its “interference with the independence of the live valuation scheme, and the resulting under-valuation of animals removed as TB reactors from farms. Rigid and impractical guidelines for the categorisation of animals in areas such as milk yield and category is also severely restricting the value animals can attain in the scheme”

Draconian

He also called for the removal of the “draconian penalty point system” used by the Department on independent valuers. The IFA said it has received calls from valuers expressing frustration with the system currently in place.

The erosion of the independence of the live valuers and the implementation of non-market-appropriate conditions for categorisation of animals renders the farm visit meaningless, according to Stewart. It fails to recognise the professional competency and market experience of independent valuers who are contracted and trained by the Department of Agriculture and is resulting in TB reactors on farms being grossly undervalued, he said.

Worries

Valuation added to the worries of farmers visited by the Irish Farmers Journal along the site of the new M17/M18 motorway in Galway, numerous TB outbreaks have been reported since construction started.

IFA Galway county chair Pat Murphy, who had 90 reactors on his farm last August, appealed the initial valuation of his animals. He said the timing of the outbreak affected the compensation he was offered. “It depends on market value in the marts, but in the middle of the summer there are only cull cows available,” he said.

Another farmer who lost several Jersey cross cows to TB in the same area said that while valuers wanted to help, they pulled down valuations out of fear of penalties. “The valuers are on a red card system. They are scared of the department,” he said. He added that the compensation system allocating €1.05 per EBI point was insufficient in the case of high-EBI cows. “I didn’t get the value of the animals,” he said.

Department response

In response, the Department told the Irish Farmers Journal that it does not accept that the supervision system in place in relation to valuers and the provision of weekly summary prices for guidance purposes to the valuers compromises the independence of system.

"The Department believes that the valuation system is effectively implemented and that these quality control arrangements, which have been in place since the introduction of the valuation system in 2001, are needed in order to ensure that Irish and EU funds are properly expended and that valuations are in line with the prices for similar animals being offered in the market place," it said in a statement.

"In this context, it is of some relevance that recent EU financial audit of the TB Eradication Scheme found that the prices being paid for reactor animals were fair and in line with prices being quoted in the Irish Farmers Journal".

Additional reporting by Thomas Hubert and Amy Nora Fitzgibbon

(Source – Irish Farmers Journal – Odile Evans – 06/01/2017)

1