Henry Dunne from Wexford has been elected as the new chair of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) Liquid Milk Committee.
Dunne farms near Enniscorthy and is part of the IFA Fresh Milk Producers (FMP) group and supplies liquid milk under the National Milk Agency (NMA) contract to Tirlán.
He succeeds Keith O’Boyle who has completed his term. Mervyn Helen from Clonakilty, Co. Cork, a liquid milk supplier to Clóna, has been announced as the new vice-chair.
Dunne thanked his predecessor for his work on behalf of liquid milk suppliers and “pledged” to continue to raise the issues that are important to the sector, the IFA said.
The newly elected chair said poor weather conditions, compounded by high production costs, have “exposed the vulnerability of the fresh milk sector”.
Liquid milk
Commenting that the fresh milk sector is now at a “critical juncture”, Dunne said: “If we don’t get a higher price, the supply of liquid milk will continue to contract.
“We cannot let this trend continue to a point when the supply of fresh milk is jeopardised in Ireland. Our sector will simply disappear.”
The number of farmers who supply fresh milk to the retail market has fallen by 60% since 2002, with only 1,286 suppliers left. It is expected that the number will continue to decline, the IFA said.
The new IFA Liquid Milk Committee chair said the cost of producing fresh milk all year round is “considerably higher” than seasonal milk production.
“When farmers are faced with falling incomes and increased regulation, they are being forced to take out their year-round milk production systems,” he added.
“Up to now, increased herd sizes and increased yields per cow have sustained supply despite falling numbers of suppliers, but we have reached the end of the road.
“Without an increase in the retail price of milk, we can no longer afford to continue with a year-round milk production model,” according to Dunne.
He added that if the retail sector is “serious about sustainability”, it must recognise that farmers producing fresh milk locally “need to have their costs of production fully accounted for by the food supply chain”.