DII Need To Wake Up To The Reality Of Dairy Farming.  –  ICMSA.

The proposal from Dairy Industry Ireland calling for a clear focus in Bord Bia Quality Assurance Schemes on water quality issues amounts to a proposal for additional rules and regulations on farmers and needs to be called out as it is according to Mr. Denis Drennan, President of ICMSA, who said that DII would want to quickly realise what’s happening within the farmgate if we are going to have a dairy industry going forward.  

The biggest problem within the farmgate today, Mr. Drennan said, is a farmers’ ability to pay bills and generate a reasonable income for his/her family and with the milk price being paid by DII members and the price they are charging for inputs, this has not been possible in 2023 and into 2024 and it is about time that milk processors renewed their focus on milk price and stop advocating for more restrictions for farmers.   The facts are of the matter today are that if a dairy farmer fails his/her SDAS, the milk processor will not collect their milk, thus putting that farmer out of business and no other sector of farming has such a draconian measure in place.   Even the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine don’t go that far and it is very disappointing that milk processors appear to want to use SDAS to pressurise farmers into changes they simply cannot afford in some cases.   To be proposing more regulation on famers shows that DII is completely out of touch with the reality of farming, said Mr. Drennan.

ICMSA, Mr. Drennan said, has and will continue to work with DII and others to support water quality improvements, it is a huge issue for the sector and in particular for derogation farmers but the effective hammer approach of DII to use quality assurance as a means to drive compliance will not work and shows a serious disregard and disconnect between the milk processors and suppliers.  

What is required to improve water quality is a collaborative approach working and supporting farmers, delivering a milk price to fund measures along with Government supports and ICMSA is very clearly saying that using SDAS is the completely wrong approach on this matter and Mr. Drennan called on DII to withdraw their proposal.

ENDS 6 June 2024

Denis Drennan is at (086) 8389401.

ICMSA Head Office (061) 314677.