Despite income slippage, the new year brings some optimism

As 2007 dawned, there was some cause for farmers to be optimistic. The prospect of a stable price continuing for beef cattle seemed positive, major milk processors had withdrawn their threat of immediate milk price cuts, and indicators for cereals were looking good.

The long and costly battle against cattle disease is going well, with BSE cases down from 333 in 2002 to only 41 in 2006, only one of which was detected in an animal aged under 10. So farmers have grounds for hope that the costly BSE testing of slaughter animals aged 30 months and over can be revised upwards to at least 36 months.

Eradication of brucellosis, long a scourge of dairy and suckler farms, has come within sight, as cases drop to 228, from a high of 6,400 seven years earlier.