‘The empire is about to strike back’

With a presentation titled ‘Irish Dairy Outlook: The Empire Strikes Back’, attendees’ attention was certainly captured by the DII director’s opening address. While the ‘striking back’ aspect was preceded by a stark look at the dairy sector, currently, it was worth waiting to hear the positives – and there are many – outlined in a succinct fashion by Conor.
“Over the last two years we have been at a crossroads in our industry,” he said. “Ireland has been a total outlier in the European Union (EU) in terms of milk loss. For 15 years in a row, we were the ‘Celtic Tiger’ of, not just European but of world dairy, and now we have lost the equivalent milk volume of Aurivo and Tipperary co-ops! Can you imagine if, at the start of 2023, you were told that Aurivo and Tipperary [co-ops] were disappearing? That is actually what has happened [in two years],” he said.
The public’s perception – troublesome, mostly – of the dairy sector and agriculture, generally, comes as no surprise to anyone reading this. But when Conor shared a ‘cartoon’ published by The Irish Times, it sheds light on why such a perception exists. Conor explained: “The perception of our industry has been badly damaged. A half-page cartoon in our esteemed ‘paper of record’ projects the Irish dairy industry as a farmer with baling twine holding up his trousers, and the country of Ireland as a pollutant dairy cow.”
Against this backdrop, it is important to note that Ireland’s dairy sector is worth €17.6 billion to the Irish economy – more than the whole of the Irish tourism sector combined – and it employes more than 80,000 people on the island.

Striking back

Despite external commentary and perceptions, Conor pointed to the good work that has been done, and that is backed up by science, technology, and independent research. “I genuinely believe the empire is about to strike back. I think the fundamentals of dairy are still amazingly, amazingly good. We are perceived as the bad guy, but I think there is going to be a huge comeback in Irish dairy because the work has been done by our farmers, by our industry, by science and technology.”

FACT: The Irish dairy sector could build 55,873 bike sheds!

And, all the metrics are moving in the right direction now, he said. “The enemies of dairy have used the trope for many years that ‘every metric is going in the wrong direction’. Well I am going to prove that this is going the other way.”
Looking at the most recent figures from the Central Statistics Office in June 2024, it reveals that total cattle numbers were down by 158,300 (-2.2 per cent) to 7,183,100 on the previous year. The number of dairy cows decreased by 22,700 (-1.4 per cent) bringing the total to 1,624,000, while the number of ‘other cows’ dropped by 46,800 (-5.4 per cent).
The total number of cattle aged less than two years decreased by 112,200 (-2.8 per cent), although there was an increase in the the number of cattle aged two years and over.
In terms of water quality, Conor presented data from the European Environment Agency and said: “While it [Ireland’s water quality] can be improved, it is excellent. But that is not the narrative that we are exposed to here in our national media. In terms of what is going right, the environmental fundamentals are quite good at the moment in terms of agriculture. Figures show that emissions are down by 4.6 per cent in agriculture, while in the transport sector, in comparison, they are up by .3 per cent despite electrification.”

Agtech answer

Conor highlighted the importance of allowing the public to question what the sector is doing to clean up its environmental act, and the equal importance of satisfying those concerns with scientific evidence to prove that agriculture is doing its very best.
“I feel that 90-95 per cent of the population just want to know that the Irish dairy industry is doing its best. We have our own ‘jihadis’ and we have ‘jihadis’ on the other side too, but we have to convince all the other people in the middle. I think ag-tech is a huge solution around that, because if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve.”
He said the sector had laid down the tracks and allowed the policy train to come towards us but now is the time to stand back up to that. “The key thing here is the Nitrates Directive, and I think, finally, agriculture has its act together and has a plan. It is unprecedented to see all the farming organisations come together and to have a clear and cohesive plan based around policy and science and what we need to do to retain the Nitrates Directive.
“I think we were very successful this year in getting €60m for improvement of water quality at local, catchment and national levels.” He was referring to the WATER European Innovation Partnership (EIP) project, within which the Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO), along with Teagasc and DII will work with an expected 15,000 farmers on an individual basis to improve water quality.
“About 1,100 farmers have signed up in the last three months. And my goal in terms of the next Programme for Government is that even more funding is available for this,” he said.
He said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - from the sector’s perspective in Ireland - is the ‘referee’ in all this: “We have to accept that and work with the EPA very strongly. We must ensure that farmers are not over-regulated and over-burdened while keeping the EPA as the referee.”
And, because Irish agriculture is playing its part, the media attention is moving away. “Now, they are looking at airports, at electricity, data centres – now they are getting the focus and that is key. If we perform, the attention moves on."

‘Agriculture is not the bogeyman’
Conor highlighted a shift in the narrative during the recent general election from main-party candidates towards agriculture, and he quoted then taoiseach, Simon Harris as saying: “I’m sick and tired of seeing how farmers are talked down to, and talked at.”
He also quoted Marie Donnelly, chair of the Climate Change Advisory Council as saying: “Agriculture is not the bogeyman. Quite honestly, our single biggest challenge right now, here in Ireland, is transport.”