Agriland spoke with the chair of the IFA dairy committee, Martin McElearney last week at the National Ploughing Championships as he highlighted farmers' need of a decent income.

McElearney spoke with Agriland prior to the majority of co-ops dropping their base milk price significantly for the month of August as hours later, Dairygold co-op slashed its base price by 3c/L.

However, McElearney stressed that butter was starting to fall, which was beginning to put pressure on global dairy prices in the last number of weeks.

Arrabawn Tipperary co-op dropped its base milk price by 2c/L two days later and Tirlán dropped by 2.5c/L a couple of days after that.

Many co-ops have put their weakened base milk price down to increased global supply and the sharp drop in butter and cheese prices.

However, prior to these major decreases in milk price, Martin McElearney was hoping that co-ops would try and hold prices for as long as possible to ensure farmers were receiving a good income coming into the back end of the year.

He said that dairy farmers "are entitled to one good year every now and then.

"There's been plenty of tough years and plenty of other challenges going on in the dairy industry and we need to have a euro in our pocket."

McElearney highlighted that 50c/L is the new base milk price, adding that "that's reality and that's where farmers need it to be to make a decent income and have a living similar to everyone else".

He also stressed that a lot of farmers out there are probably doing 60-70-hour working weeks, which is nearly two shifts, as well as "probably unpaid farm labour at home that doesn't be accounted for".

Regarding the TB action plan that was released a couple of weeks ago, McElearney and the Irish Farmers' Association were disappointed with a number of areas.

Firstly, in terms of the TB compensation, and with no update on prices in line with rising prices of cattle, McElearney expressing his disappointment with the government not addressing this.

He said: "€3,000 doesn't buy you many cows anymore."

The IFA dairy chair is also disappointed with the new trading rules around cull cows.

He said: "That's great when beef prices are at a high, but when beef prices fall - and hopefully won't but possibly will do - you're left with no other outlet other than to bring them to the mart and you can't bring them home."

McElearney also expressed his concerns with the lack of labour units within the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, highlighting the need for the department to bring on more staff as "they are understaffed".

He also mentioned that "the wildlife programme wouldn't be up to spec" either before stating that there are "a lot of pieces of that jigsaw that are yet to be filled in".

McElearney went on to praise the work that dairy farmers have been doing over the last two to three years to improve water quality, and also acknowledged the work of the co-ops to to encourage people into ASSAP and to utilise the Farming for Water EIP funding.

He said that the recent addition of the Appropriate Assessment on the Habitats Directive when granting farmers a nitrates derogation is "deeply disappointing".

Under the Habitats Directive, any plan or project "likely to have a significant effect on a designated site or species" must be subject to Appropriate Assessment of its implications for the site.

Speaking about the Appropriate Assessments, McElearney said: "My personal feeling is that there will be people left behind".

However, he indicated that "the minister and government need to make sure that doesn't happen".

He added that if Ireland does manage to retain a renewal of the Nitrates Derogation, the department must ensure that farmers around the country in different areas "aren't left out through no fault of their own".