Dairy farmers urged to be careful over possibility of super levy fines

DAIRY farmers need to exercise caution to avoid incurring super levy fines due to over-production at the end of the 2010/2011 milk quota year, according to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Brendan Smith.

The minister said that the acceleration in milk production that we saw in 2010, and particularly towards the end of the year, has continued into 2011. Butterfat-adjusted deliveries in January have brought the national position to 1.88% under quota, up from 2.35% under at the end of December.

Mr Smith said: “Given that we have already seen changes of the order of 1% from one month to the next on three occasions during the current milk quota year, there is every possibility that deliveries in the remaining two months could leave us over quota nationally at the end of March.”