€5m per year forecast for heifer rearers
At the recent Collaborative Farming Conference in Clonmel, George Ramsbottom of Teagasc said if heifers from 1,000 herds are contract reared, it will be a € 19m per year business, offering a € 5m reward to rearers.
This is based on a 25% replacement rate in 120-cow herds, which each require 30 heifers at an average rearing fee €637 each for 590 days of rearing.
However, contract rearing could be a three to five times bigger business — depending on how many of the estimated 3,000 to 5,000 dairy farmers which face scale or stocking rate challenges opt to expand and contract out their heifer rearing to other farmers.
¦ The Collaborative Farming Conference also heard from John Downey of the meat and milk policy division in the Department of Agriculture that despite the ending of milk quotas in 2015, the Department will continue to encourage for mation and maintenance of farm partner-ships.
However, a new Register of Farm Partnerships is being established, confirming the bona fides of partnerships and enabling the Departments of Agriculture and Finance to continue support for partnerships (such as preferential stock relief and top-ups for young farmers in registered farm partnerships, in the new rural development programme). These are additional to obvious benefits of partnership such as extra land, economies of scale, and better work-life balance.
The new register will be maintained by the Department of Agriculture, with significant Teagasc involvement and promotion. It will facilitate a continued registration process for milk production par tnerships, provide for registration of farm partnerships in enterprises other than dairying, and act as a clearing house for the various divisions within the Department that administer supports for partnerships.
Mr Downey said signing off a Statutory Instrument and Detailed rules for the new register is scheduled for the end of June.
Teagasc is writing to all milk production partnership members for permission to pass their information to the Department.
Milk production partner-ships will be automatically transferred to the new register on April 1, 2015 and checked for compliance with new procedures by the anniversary of their final renewal by Teagasc.
The entitlements held by each member of a partnership will be individualised, converged and then re-amalgamated in the new Register.
