73 new entrants to dairy farming allocated 14m litres of milk quota

A TOTAL of 73 new entrants to dairying have been allocated 14 million litres of milk quota under the New Entrants Scheme.

Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith, who announced his decision yesterday, said he was delighted to help a significant number of new entrants to take their first steps towards what he hoped will be successful careers in dairying.

“New entrants are vital to the future of the dairy sector, and it is greatly encouraging to see not only a high level of interest in the scheme, but also the impressively high calibre of the applicants.”

Mr Smith said 41 “brand new” entrants, who had not previously held quota, will each receive allocations of 200,000 litres. The remaining 32 successful applicants, who had previously purchased quota as new entrants under the Milk Quota Trading Scheme, will each receive allocations of 181,250 litres.

A total of 111 applications were received , of which 73 were identified as worthy of quota allocations.

All recipients have until April 1, 2012, to commence production, and all will be required to attend training courses facilitated by Teagasc and to provide financial statements on an annual basis.

IFA Dairy Committee chairman Kevin Kiersey said the new entrants’ scheme, first run last year, gave farmers without milk quota an opportunity to acquire free of charge up to a quarter of the 1% annual milk quota increase decided in late 2008 as part of the EU CAP health check. However, farmers who had purchased quota from the Milk Quota Trading scheme as new entrants in recent years were not included.