Farm fodder crisis - Too many cows?

The fodder difficulties facing some farmers are serious and a sympathetic response seems appropriate. However, some questions that may provoke unfounded charges of anti-farmer bias should be asked before the Government chequebook is waved about.

According to IFA figures the national dairy herd stands at something around 1.4m animals, 300,000 of which joined the herd since milk quotas ended in March 2015. That’s almost a 20% increase in three years and raises the question — is this an over-stocking problem or a fodder problem?