As 2022 draws to a close, Agriland caught up with Pat McCormack, president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA), to review how the year went, covering topics like nitrates and calf exports for 2023 and beyond.
2022 will be described by most farmers as a good, but challenging year, with dairy farmers achieving milk prices that had never been seen before.
However, this success was hampered by a rising cost of production and challenging weather conditions.
2022 review
Outlining his review of 2022, McCormack said: “2022 was a very high-risk year, with high input costs and high output costs.”
McCormack said that the year started out with a focus on the cost of feed and fertiliser, and the potential of further increases.
But as events unfolded in February, everyone’s attention was turned to the war in Ukraine.
“Obviously your heart would go out to those people, but it has an impact on all of us as European citizens, in the price of inputs,” McCormack said.
“There was a particular point as a farmer that you would be concerned if there was going to be diesel there to make the second-cut silage… to put out slurry.
“There was a lot anxiety out there, but thankfully we have worked our way through it as an industry.
“The figures would indicate that some dairy farmers are short of fodder, but hopefully we will work our way through it as a nation,” he added.
Continuing, McCormack said that the talk of getting a base price of 50c/L began to materialise in April and this eased the pressure placed on many dairy farms.
The price boost allowed many farmers to purchase fertiliser when it was needed.
However, McCormack said that many farmers still had a challenging March and April, with milk supplies reflecting this and the removal of peak month management measures.
As the year progressed, McCormack said, farmers had a reasonable May and June, but milk supply was still tight.
Some farmers were then hit with drought, which lasted until the rain arrived in late-September / early October.
Nitrates
Commenting on the outlook for the dairy sector in 2023, McCormack said: “Farmers are hugely anxious about milk price, because it is the driving force behind dairy farmers’ incomes.
“Inputs in many cases have been forward purchased at a historical high price and we need to get a milk price to balance the books.”
Commenting on the changes to the Food Vision Dairy Group report – nitrates and the introducing of banding – McCormack said that it is the biggest challenge facing farmers and the sector since he has been representing farmers.
McCormack said: “It is something in ways that doesn’t make a lot of sense, because we are a food-producing island.
“We are efficient at what we do, more efficient than anyone else in Europe.”
McCormack said that milk production has allowed a lot of people to return to full-time employment on farms and these farms have made considerable investments in both land and infrastructure.
He added that it is hugely frustrating and disappointing to see the buoyancy that has been present in rural Ireland for the last 10 years be “drained away” by the Food Vision Dairy Group.
McCormack said: “There are challenges to meet our environmental aspirations, but the science is evolving and there is a lot of good work being done by people in Teagasc and hopefully that will come to fruition in time.
“The one thing that frustrates me is that the dairy vision group, where they talk about no cull to the national herd – what is the nitrates?”
Exports
In recent weeks and months, the export of calves has been coming under increased pressure, with many predicting that it will come to an end in the near future.
Agriland asked McCormack about his view of the practice of exporting calves and its viability going forward.
“We need to be really careful. There is no room for error and there is absolutely no room for misconduct.
“My information is that the Netherlands is very anxious to do business and has a lot of demand for black and white bull calves for the spring.
“Long term, it is probably not going to be the business; there is between 140,000 and 160,000 calves exported annually and that is a help.
“But with genetics and breeding policy we should be able to produce an animal that is fit for purpose and reduce the age of slaughter.”
Going forward, McCormack said that reducing the age of slaughter from these animals will allow for more of them to be finished within the national herd.
But he stressed that farmers must be rewarded for this.
“The Irish aren’t banning calf exports; we’re an island nation, we want our exports,” he said.
“It is going to be more and more challenging from an European perspective to keep those exports.
“ICMSA policy has always been that we need exports; we need exports for calves, we need exports for weanlings, we need exports for cattle.
“That provides competition in the market place for an island nation on periphery of Europe.”
McCormack added that recent changes within the European Parliament have meant that they are not as tolerant of live exports as they were in the past, which he said is “something we need to acknowledge and work with”.
“Why are calves in demand? They’re in demand on mainland Europe because they deliver,” he said.
“They deliver because they have been looked after from a very young age; they’ve gotten plenty of colostrum and they have the genetics to grow.
“We have had other issues with calves in the country this year, but they are a very small minority and there is no place for them in our agricultural sector,” McCormack concluded.