Warning: heading for zero milk profitability

PROFITABILITY in Irish dairy farming could be heading to zero by 2008 when the single farm payment is taken out of the calculation, warns Fine Gael Agriculture spokesperson Denis Naughten.

Non-active dairy farmers, merely by taking their single farm payment, could end up better off than those actively farming now, he said.

In the near future regional quotas may not be filled, because potential new entrants without a decoupled payment cannot enter dairy farming, and there is a massive fall off in the number of active dairy farmers, according to Deputy Naughten.