The Irish Creamery and Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has called for the immediate implementation of “flexibilities” on concentrate feed.
The ICMSA president, Denis Drennan said that the government’s “treatment” of farmers on the nitrates issue has been “shocking” and has “undermined” their future viability.
The association is also calling for the “immediate implementation” of a reduction in the excretion rates of calves from 6kg to 1kg for the first 12 weeks of life.
Drennan said that the ICMSA met with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue last week where “he again committed to the changes”.
Last month, the Agriculture Water Quality Working Group put forward its final draft outlining recommendations, including a cap on crude protein in animal feed.
ICMSA
Drennan said these proposals, “while technical in nature”, have the potential to “considerably reduce” the impact of the reduction from 250kg organic nitrogen (N) per hectare to 220kg N/ha.
The association’s president said the proposal is to introduce “flexibilities” in concentrate feeding that will have both a “positive” water quality and climate change impact.
He called on the minister to confirm that changes to the nitrates regulation on which, the ICMSA president said, the minister “had made commitments” will be delivered “without delay”.
The ICMSA president said the “time is long past” for Minister McConalogue to deliver on these two “critical changes” which the minister “committed to deliver on multiple occasions”.
Many farmers are faced with either cuts of up to 26% in their herd size or leasing “very expensive land that they simply do not need for farming purposes”, according to Drennan.
He said that this has been the “result of the flawed agreement signed by the Irish government in spring 2022 with the European Commission” on the introduction of nitrates banding.
“We are also seeing farm families ‘pulling the plug’ on milking cows as a result of these decisions.
“While we‘re hearing lots of vague promises about flexibility, there’s been absolutely nothing meaningful on this front yet,” according to the ICMSA president.
While all farmers are “vulnerable” to the changes, he said those milking 40-120 cows are “particularly vulnerable” and the “clear evidence is that we could lose a lot of these farmers”.