Families in fear as Dairygold is dismantled

DAIRYGOLD management, as we all know, is in a tremendous hurry to dismantle all that has been built up by its workforce and its farmers over long years of toil and commitment.

As a concerned Dairygold shareholder, I believe that chief executive Jerry Henchy should not be allowed to get away with saying he is carving up our co-op in the interests of shareholders. His reign of ‘shut it, sell it’ seemingly cannot be stopped.

The Irish Examiner has rightly highlighted what ‘shut it, sell it’ means in human terms.

It means families are feeling frightened, insecure and unsure of their future.

Students from farming backgrounds entering third level this year are coming from homes where incomes have halved since they were babies.

Those of us with spouses working outside the home see their incomes increase thanks to national wage agreements while we farmers see ours decrease with each passing year.

Teagasc tells us we must become more efficient and ‘grow the business’ with larger herds.

At its research farms Teagasc puts into operation its own best advice. Sadly these farms are operating at a loss. Not an option when rearing a family, although seemingly perfectly acceptable when state-funded.

Mr Henchy - in a recent address to the Irish grassland conference, entitled ‘Is there a future for Irish milk?’ - mentioned possible ways of introducing price penalties for peak milk supplies.

Dairygold, until recently, had its own dairy farm.

If it was still there, perhaps Dairygold could either try out its own advice first or seek out price increases for milk supplies to make that farm a profitable venture. Is Irish milk more important than Irish milk producers?

I often wonder if the captains of our industry think we dairy farmers cannot see clearly what is happening to our industry, our careers and our lives. I am deeply angry that my long hours of toil will provide the enormous salaries to these ‘captains’ - some of whom earn more in two weeks than I will earn in a whole year.

Dairygold’s recent statement to shareholders, through its newsletter, concerning the centralisation of its back-office sector is very different from its press release to the Irish Examiner.

Yet another sad example of what many might consider double-speak by senior management. How can shareholders have trust or confidence in this type of regime?

John O’Sullivan

Peake House

Coachford

Co Cork