Ireland’s best dairy farmers have very little room to make cutbacks during a difficult milk price year, according to Michael Brady of the Brady Group of agricultural consultants.

According to the Co. Cork-based advisor, these farmers have very little ‘wriggle’ room as the cows and soils still need to be fed to avoid problems down the road.

Speaking to Agriland recently Brady said that these farms are faced with two options during a low milk price year, the first of which is to defer any expansion plans, especially if the farm is considering large scale expansion.

Delaying the expansion process could potentially allow dairy farmers to sell the additional replacement heifers to boost cash flow, he said, but added that cash flow is not a major issue on his clients farms at the current time.

The second step is to negotiate interest only repayments during a difficult year but, according to Brady, the banks are relatively slow on the uptake of this option as it is a new concept for farm banking.

However, Brady said that for that banks to even consider this option in advance dairy farmers must have properly prepared budgets to fully identify the need for this financial measure.