The chair of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) Dairy Committee has accused the government of a lack of support for the dairy sector.
Stephen Arthur said that farmers with herds of between 40-60 cows are under pressure to comply with regulations coming from the European Union, particularly around nitrates and water quality.
“We have a department of agriculture that seems to be willing to carry out the instructions of European policy.
“They seem to be a pro-European policy department and they don’t understand the consequences of these policies inside farm gate.
“You take a guy there with 60 cows and he has everything done, everything proper. He has to gather up maybe 10,12 or 14 acres to keep his cows, to keep where he is, and he has to pay €330-400/ac for it, just to hold onto what he has,” he told Agriland.
Dairy
Arthur said that the dairy farm is the “main fabric of rural Ireland” but it is being “obliterated” by government policy.
“Teagasc has shown that reducing the stocking rate from 250kg [N per ha] to 220kg will have very little, if any, impact on water quality. Yet it has a massive impact on farm incomes, especially the smaller farms,” Arthur added.
He also said that farmers are annoyed about the environmental impact of a possible 25% increase in passenger numbers at Dublin Airport which is currently being considered by council planners.
“Farmers are quite aggrieved over this. They feel that the dairy cow is paying for everything.
“They’re paying for the expansion of the cap in Dublin Airport, they’re also paying for the rectifying of water quality and getting to the [emissions] levels for greenhouse gases (GHGs),” he said.
Support
The IFA chair said that dairy farmers should be able to avail of grants of 70% under the Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Schemes (TAMS) for enhanced slurry storage facilities.
“Rather than making more regulations to make more people non-compliant, let’s do a system to get everybody compliant, get the capacity built up where we can manage the nutrients on the farms,” he said.
In order for farmers to keep calves on farms longer, Arthur said they should be allowed to claim VAT back on calf feeders and drafting units, while farmers rearing calves should be paid €100/animal.
He added that carbon taxes should be used to incentivise the early slaughter of cattle.
Arthur said that 2022 was a particularly successful year in Irish dairy farming with an average income of over €150,000.
However, since then milk prices have tumbled from record highs against the backdrop of volatile global markets.
“That’s my fear that we had one really good year and based on one year’s economics we are going to devise the policy of dairy farming going forward in the future. I think that’s wrong.
“Look at this year, we’ve farmers there with big cash flow issues, income is way down,” Arthur said.
“Farmers have €1.2 billion euro invested and borrowed on their farms, interest rates are gone through the roof. They’re constantly spending just to hold where they are.
“It’s frustrating for any farmer that’s out there. The two kinds of phone calls we’re getting is the guy who cannot get the land to rent because he can’t compete in the market and the other guy who just wants to get out,” he added.
Dairy exit scheme
The IFA Dairy chair said there is a “strong appetite” among farmers for a dairy reduction or exit scheme.
However, he believes that Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue may not bring such a measure forward.
“Why would he bring in a scheme when he’s taking the cows out for nothing, his policies are taking the cows out for nothing. Why would you put money into a scheme when you have a tool, a blunt object called the nitrates directive?
“The dairy milk cheque has been so important to small rural communities the length and breadth of the country, European policy is just slowly eroding that,” Arthur said.
“The policies that they are bringing in, it’s just destroying the rural communities of milking cows, of family farms.
“We’ve a [farmer] age profile heading for 60 years of age. In five or six years’ time I can see lots of dairy farmers gone out of business. They don’t want to be there, they’re tired of milking cows and want to get out,” he added.