There’s more to Irish farming than milk
So, what you read here is not coloured in any way by the outcome of the first vote.
While I am a shareholder, I am not a milk producer, and although some had suggested that “dry share holders” such as myself should have been excluded from the vote on the basis that what was being voted on effected only milk producers I viewed that argument as bizarre.
You cannot choose to eliminate an entire portion of legitimate shareholders on the basis that they don’t own a cow.
While many dairy farmers hold passionate views on either side of the Glanbia argument — as to how the overall package on offer being accepted or rejected over a possible two-vote scenario might effect them personally — the question of how a massive increase in the area under milk production will impact on non dairy farming enterprises — irregardless of the result of the Glanbia vote — has, it appears, gone largely unexamined among the farming community.
The reality is that while the ending of the quota system in 2015 is part of the driving force behind the Glanbia joint venture proposal, that same ending has already seen a huge investment programme take place on dairy farms all across the county as nationally dairy farmers tool up individually to expand their production and possible profits.
While the areas under the Glanbia banner have seen the viability of such expansions come into sharp focus, because of the debate created by the joint venture proposal, the reality is that other farming enterprises outside of dairying have already begun to change as the wider farming family begins to adjust to the coming of age of its bigger brother. Several times in recent months my mart reports have included references to “special suckler sales” as some suckler men exit the production of beef to concentrate on or begin milk production.
Others I know have begun milk production after taking advantage of the high factory prices to dispose of their cows while bringing their progeny to marts for equally good prices.
In my own area over the last couple of years I’ve seen tillage men turn over their ground to grass and then either sell or lease their grass crops to their dairying neighbours for grazing or fodder. For my part, I’ve reduced my cattle numbers and found that dairy farmers from ten miles away were prepared to pay well for me to grow winter feed be it silage or grain on contract as they chose to free up home ground for summer and autumn milk.
My bed and breakfast arrangement with another neighbour involving his in calf replacement heifers is driven by the same need.
If those in the dairy sector are to realise their ambitions they will need either to buy more land outright or offer good contracts to their neighbours to produce the raw materials. This I believe is only the start of a change in how land in Ireland will be farmed in certain areas in the future.
As milk increases the progeny from the dairy herd will probably easily replace the fall off in better suckler types which will present both difficulties and opportunities for the beef men. Difficulties in relation to conformation and finished carcase weights, assuming that they are not all left as bulls and opportunities in that these lesser quality animals, will be easier bought.
The complexion of beef farming particularly in the south will change in the next few years, and until someone suggests that the dairymen should start breeding better conformation Friesians, Angus or Herefords to improve things the future for many of us in the cattle business is black and white!
