The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has claimed that the average dairy farmer income is now “well below” the minimum legal hourly wage.
The association’s president Denis Drennan made the comments ahead of the publication of the 2023 Teagasc National Farm Survey which is expected to show a “serious drop” in dairy farm incomes.
Drennan said that the “wipeout” of dairy farmer income had been presided over by the government and “cheered-on by a blissfully ignorant and insulated class of commentators”.
He added that the “collapse” in the incomes of farmers producing milk “is a damning indictment of the government’s stewardship of Irish farming and food”.
Dairy farmer
The ICMSA president said that the Teagasc National Farm Survey is “going to confirm what we already know”.
“Dairy farmer income has fallen again, and we think will now be coming in under €50,000 for 2023.
“But that figure hides the true extent of the disgrace that is dairy farmer income in 2024,” he said.
Drennan gave the example of the average dairy farmer milking 92 cows with each cow producing 6,000 litres, giving a total production of 552,000 litres.
He said that based on a milk price of 43c/L with a production cost of 37c/L, giving a net of just 6c/L, that farm is now earning a total of approximately €33,000 from the milk enterprise.
He added that the average farmer will have repayments in the order of €15,000, reducing their income to €18,000.
“That €18,000, based on farmers working a 60-hour week represents, to our most skilled farmer supporting a multi-billion euro sector, the grand total of €5.76 per hour and that includes working Sundays, bank holidays etc.
“That’s less than half the minimum hourly wage and is – we need to say this honestly – an absolute disgrace.
“This is what our most technical and trained fulltime farmers – the ones on whom our world-famous, flagship food export is built are coming out with,” Drennan said.
ICMSA
The ICMSA president said that the State and its officials will point to the supports which they offer dairy farmers.
“The rest of us, and certainly ICMSA’s farmer-members, have to deal with their actual income; they can’t pay the bank or bills with ministerial intentions,” he said.
Drennan repeated his call for Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue to convene an “all-sector farm summit” as soon as possible.
“We are in the throes of a ‘slow-motion’ collapse of our multi-billion euro farm and food sector and the only response from those officials charged with responsibility is silence.
“We have to ‘take the wheel’ and stop this aimless utterly destructive drift that so many seem content with and we have to look at generational renewal as the figures outlined above will not be tolerated by the next generation,” he said.