Need to attract young farmers
Martin Heenan, chairman of the Limerick County ICMSA Executive, was speaking at the annual general meeting of the Limerick County Executive at Adare. He said there has been a haemorrhage of young people out of farming.
“It is terrible to see farmers’ sons driving dumpers and diggers on sites because they feel that they can get a better living than on the land. Many of them have so much ability, but they don’t see a future in farming,” he said.
“In dairy farming, the only way to attract young people into it is by offering them a good price for their milk, and a good return for their efforts and their work. I don’t think that disbanding milk quota is the way to go, because we don’t want to back to the days of poor milk price again.”
He said the improvement in the milk price this year was most welcome, because price had been dropping for 10 or 12 years and farmers faced substantial increases in production costs.
* ICMSA president, Jackie Cahill told the meeting that while the volume of Irish beef going to European markets had increased from 50% in 2000 to over 90% last year, the price being paid to farmers was being undermined by supplies from South America, and there appeared to be no political will to stop South American imports.
He warned that supplies from Argentina could become more of a threat on the European market than beef than supplies from Brazil.
