Irish Farmers have been turning out in droves to protest against the planned methane emissions reduction target, which could see 200,000 head culled. Photo: Twitter

IRISH farmers have been taking to the streets in recent weeks after reports surfaced of a Government plan to cull 200,000 cows to meet climate targets.

The controversial legislation to cut its emissions by 25 percent between the years of 2018 and 2030 was slated last year, with farmers raising concerns about potential culls. The Irish Cattle Breeding Federation last year told Beef Central it believed it could comply with the target through improved genetics.

However, cull concerns were recently ramped up, with a local media outlet finding a Government report that suggested culling 200,000 cows to meet the target.

Ireland’s Department of Agriculture has since watered the claims down saying that the paper was a “modelling document” and that the Government had not made any concrete plans.

It seems that has not been enough to quash concerns about the new legislation, with farmers recently taking to the cities with tractors to protest. Even Twitter’s owner Elon Musk weighed in.

I’m super pro climate, but we definitely don’t need to put farmers out of work to solve climate change. Not at all.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 4, 2023

“This really needs to stop. Killing some cows doesn’t matter for climate change,” he said in a Tweet.

Cattle industry has win with EU

Tractors have been rolling into cities in other parts of the Europe, with mass protests in The Netherlands and Belgium against herd reducing emissions legislation. A political party formed in The Netherlands off the back of the legislation and won many seats in the last election.

However, the livestock industry has managed to reverse some blunt legislation about livestock emissions.

The EU Commission had been seeking to have every farm with more than 150 Livestock Units included within the scope of its Industrial Emissions Directive, which forced countries to take drastic action on emissions. The negotiating position agreed by the EU Council had increased the threshold to 350 Livestock Units.

Irish Farmers’ Association president Tim Cullinan said including livestock farming within the IED was the completely wrong approach in the first place.

“Farms are already heavily regulated and they are not ‘industrial’ units. We have a pasture-based system in this country,” Mr Cullinan said.

“This was driven by ideology, not science, and it’s the ‘thin end of the wedge’ to force a costly licensing regime on farming.”