Farmers under pressure and under fire in evolving life cycle of Irish dairy
In Years Brought 22,000 Icmsa Foundation, 1956 Six Its To Demonstrate After Dairy Dublin Farmers In Just
ICMSA deputy president, Denis Drennan, has seen significant change in the life of dairy farmers over the past 20 yers.
Reflecting upon the changing farming landscape over the past number of years, he had this to say: "20 years ago, a farmer would get up in the morning, do a hard day's work and then relax in the evening, watch telly, have supper, go to a match or racing, or whatever.
"10 years ago, you got up in the morning, you did your day's work you came in and you had to fill up all your forms and paperwork associated with what you did during the day.
"And now, today, we are getting up in the morning wondering if we will be allowed to do what we want to do. Then we do it and then you have to report on what you have done.
"Farmers are getting to the stage of burnout from the amount of rules and regulations coming in. Regulations like this one, limiting production, limiting a farmers ability to generate an income off the land. And this is particularly the case for smaller farmers, who are really being put to the pin of their collar.
"A lot of people have invested huge amounts of money in the last number of years on infrastructure on their farm. Maybe on building a bigger milking parlour, on more slurry storage, more housing, more cubicles, bigger silage pits and all those commitments may have been based on X number of cows.
"And now if you are going to be told that you can only have X amount of cows, minus 12%, what implications is this going to have on your business plan? Many will be faced with a dilemma. Reduce the stocking rate on the farm, or seek out more land.
"And the last option is simply out of reach. The last time land was rented out near me, it went for €620 per acre. And that cost is not financially viable unless you are a very big operator.
"There is so much pressure on land from so many different sectors. We have a lot of money being put into converting farmers to organic farmers, even though there is only a limited market for what they produce.
"We have biodiversity, tillage schemes, more land going into forestry, demands for land for solar power. There is huge pressure on land in evey direction and the last time I checked there was nobody making more of it.
"So where is this land going to come from?"
Denis Drennan also questions other sectors and their commitment to the environment.
"When you look at other sectors, it really makes you wonder. Take the energy sector, where once we were being told they were going to generate our energy supply from wind farms off the west coast but now you hear energy experts on the radio and TV say that the west coast is not suitable, it's not practical. It's not feasible because the seas are too deep.
"And then from transport, you hear of target plans where the transport sector promises to have a million electric vehicles on our roads by 2030 only to announce six months later that it's not possible to do that. And have they come up with a plan B? No.
"But yet the focus remains on farmers and what we are going to do, and even though we are probably far ahead of the other sectors we are still being asked to do more and more and more."
