Peak milk: 'We are just looking for 10-15 extra cows and are being told no'

Farming in Aughrim Co. Wicklow, Jack Keenan and his father Donal are currently milking 50 mainly Holstein cows and have been impacted by Glanbia peak milk supply measures.

Jack and Donal have been in partnership since April 2018, and had made plans to increase cow numbers after improving their farm’s infrastructure.

Usually the Keenans milk around 60 cows, but TB issues in the spring have seen that number reduced to 50.

In February 2020, the decision was made to start building the new cubicle shed and milking parlour.

So, like most Glanbia suppliers, the news of peak milk supply measures came as a shock to the Keenans, as they had already begun construction of a new cubicle shed and milking parlour.

Jack told Agriland: “We had the shed up and nearly finished when Glanbia announced its peak supply management.”

Peak milk

Commenting on the peak milk supply measures and the reserve pool, Jack stated: “Like a lot of suppliers, we applied for an extra allocation of milk; we have slurry storage for 140 cows for 20 weeks – which we will never get to.

“In theory we won’t have to spread slurry for two years, so we thought we were in a good position to apply for an extra allocation of milk.

“We spent €350,000 on improving infrastructure, slurry storage and meeting nitrates requirements and we were told no.

“So we have appealed that decision and that appeal is currently ongoing. [I feel] the unfair thing is that improvement to infrastructure was lower on the consideration, than buying or leasing land.

“A recent report showed that 80% of dairy farmers need extra slurry storage and I presume some of these farmers were allocated extra milk by Glanbia.

“How can you have extra cows and no slurry storage? I know of other farmers in a similar position to us and they have not been allocated extra milk.

“10-15 extra cows is all we were looking for; our business plan we used to get funding to build the new shed, was based off 70 cows.

“If we can’t get to 70 cows, our business plan is not going to work. We also lost cows in the spring to TB, so we have had two sucker punches this spring – hopefully there won’t be a third.

“We have a bunch of heifer calves down the lane and I would like to milk all of them. If we don’t get the extra milk, I’m not sure what we will do.”

Impact

Jack is the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) dairy chair for Wicklow, so he is in regular contact with other dairy farmers in Wicklow and across the country.

Commenting on the impact of not being allocated extra milk, he said: “Talking to other farmers around the country who have leased or purchased land, they seem to have gotten extra allocations of milk.

“I am not saying that is the case with every farmer. But us having 10-15 cows was not going to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“Glanbia were looking for extra suppliers and encouraging suppliers to increase their milk output… we are just looking for 10-15 extra cows and we are being told no.

“We have been Glanbia suppliers for 60 years and waited until we had the infrastructure in place before increasing cow numbers.

“If we do not get the extra milk, we will have to let the leased land go because it will not be financially viable. Which will mean the home farm will be more intensively farmed and we will be causing damage to the environment.

“The farm is index 3 and 4 for phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). We are trying to incorporate as much clover as possible.

“We have planted multi-species swards on the farm. I do not think there is much more we could have done.

“The environmental measures adopted on farms should have been considered; it would of painted a better image for Glanbia going forward.”

Environment

Commenting on the environment further, Jack said: “Milk produced off grass is what Glanbia is marketing, but it is the stuff going on behind that, An Taisce is giving out about.

“All of these allocations were done by people in offices, no one called out to the farm to see what we have being doing. We are not a highly stocked farm, our milking platform stocking rate is 2.7LU/ha.

“We have a piece of land down the road that we use to graze sheep on – this spring we planted that land into native woodland.

“We only spread 160 units of nitrogen this year, growing 16t dry matter (DM)/ha, feeding cows 600kg of concentrate and producing 550kg of ms.

“We are ticking all the boxes and still have not gotten any extra milk. Glanbia advised all their suppliers to put in for extra milk. I know several farmers that got extra milk and have no plans on using it.

“89% of farmers were happy with the allocations, but I would love to find these farmers.

“I relief milk for a neighbour and he lost 38 cows in two reference years. He milks 160 cows and Glanbia gave him 2,500L – that’s half his milk a day.

“He would have been happier if they gave him nothing. I have farmers ringing me saying that they are happy, but I also have a lot of farmers ringing saying they are not happy.”

Options

Speaking about the options available to them, Jack stated: “We have looked at calving later in the year, but we are a spring-calving herd and we want to keep it that way.

“When I came home to farm alongside my father in 2016, the cows were doing 460kg of ms; we are up to 550kg of ms in five years.

“The farm is growing an extra 4.5t of DM/ha. I want to utilise all of that grass, I don’t want to be calving from September to Christmas.

“We have tightened up the calving and we have invested in heat detection collars to tighten it up even more. Winter milk is not a route we want to go down.”

Should Glanbia have taken a different approach?

Commenting on how he feels Glanbia should have handled the peak milk situation, he said: “They should have had better forward planning.

“They should of been more cautious taking on new entrants. Everyone is entitled to a crack at it, but Glanbia were just out there taking everyone as quick as they could, ‘we’ll take your milk, we’ll take your milk’.

“There [are] a lot of unhappy suppliers who have been supplying Glanbia for decades.

“I am not bashing new entrants, I have several friends that are new entrants. I helped them do some of the building work to get there, and I am glad they did get there.”

Milk advisors

Concluding, Jack said: “I feel sorry for the milk advisors and farm development managers in Glanbia.

“The morning that it was announced, I rang our farm development manager at 9:00a.m.

“I had to ring him back later that evening and it was like talking to different people. They are the unfortunate people that are getting the brunt of this.