IFA: ‘Dairy farmers cannot alone shoulder low price’

The IFA has started a series of meetings with dairy co-ops on behalf of milk producers.

Dairy Committee chairman Seán O’Leary said milk prices for 2016 and measures to cope with price fluctuation for farmers will be among the issues for discussion.

The meetings will help farmers “facing into a tough cash-flow situation this spring”, Mr O’Leary said.

He said milk supply and demand are in the process of balancing out.

However, dairy farmers face a few challenging months before markets stabilise.

Their cash-flow is affected by already low milk prices and seasonally poor constituent levels in the first quarter.

Mr O’Leary said this is why the IFA Dairy Committee decided to meet up with co-ops as early as possible.

The meetings, which start this month, aim to form a strategy to support farmers through the short-term cash-flow crisis.

The meetings will also deal with longer term issues.

The IFA said that farmers cannot be left to shoulder the impact of prolonged low market returns alone.