Entrants welcomed to partnerships

PROPOSED changes to dairy partnerships have been welcomed by Macra na Feirme as a positive step forward.

Macra agricultural affairs sub-committee chairperson Dara Kavanagh said allowing non-traditional new entrants and non-dairy farmers to enter milk partnerships was a welcome move.

“The removal of barriers to genuine farm partnerships will allow non-traditional new entrants to enter dairying and will allow existing farmers to gain economies of scale and improve quality of life,” he said.

The proposed changes will allow more than one new entrant in a household to enter the partnership and acquire milk quota in their own right.

Other proposed changes would allow farm managers and new entrants to farming, who have completed their agricultural education but have no land or access to quota, to form a partnership with an existing dairy farmer and gain access to quota in their own right.

Mr Kavanagh said Ireland has lost skilled professionals to countries where they entered dairy farming through options such as share farming.

Farmers who are in other farm enterprises and want to get involved in dairying can consider the partnership route, provided one of the farmers in the proposed partnership is an existing dairy farmer.

He said partnerships have benefits including tackling availability of consolidated land blocks.