Ireland’s milk SCC level derogation under question

An additional 1.3% of the national milk pool, coming from 0.7% of dairy herds, could be deemed unfit for processing, if Ireland’s unique derogation from EU regulations for somatic cell count (SCC) is scrapped.

The effect of losing the derogation has been estimated by experts at Animal Health Ireland, the Centre for Veterinary Epidemiology and Risk Analysis, and UCD.

They carried out the research at the request of the Department of Agriculture, because Ireland’s SCC derogation has come under question.

The EU allows Ireland a monthly seasonal SCC derogation from November to February, to take account of the seasonality of production.

The new research findings, based on 2013 national bulk tank SCC data, will help to inform future national milk policy decisions.