Contingency of up to 20% advised for expanding farmers

Recently, I had the pleasure of hearing Dr Laurence Shalloo of Teagasc speak at a West Cork event on planning expansion for 2015; the following are some key messages from the event for farmers looking to expand.

To achieve the Food Harvest 2020, Laurence projected that the target increase of 2.5bn litres of milk production was likely to come in part from a 15% increase in milk year per cow as well as an additional 330,000 dairy cows coming on stream over the intervening period.

This increase in milk production is likely to drive an €850m increase in annual sales for Ireland, however, Laurence was keen to advise farmers that expansion should only be undertaken at individual farm level where it is profitable to do so.