In advance of the publication of the Teagasc National Farm Survey, ICMSA president, Denis Drennan issued a highly critical statement this week in which he attributed a collapse in dairy-farming income to ‘Government’s stewardship of Irish farming and food’ which he said was a ‘textbook example of how to drive a vibrant and healthy multi-billion Euro sector potentially off a cliff’.
“We know that the Teagasc National Farm Survey will be published shortly. Obviously, even at this stage that survey is going to confirm what we already know; that dairy farmer income has fallen again, and we think will now be coming in under €50,000 for 2023. But that figure hides the true extent of the disgrace that is dairy farmer income in 2024,” he said.
He gave an example of the average dairy farmer milking 92 cows with each cow producing 6,000L, giving a total production of 552,000L.
“Based on a milk price of 43c/L with a production cost of 37c/L, giving a net of just 6c/L, that farm is now earning a total of approximately €33,000 out of which that average farmer will have repayments – often linked to requirements to meet ever increasing environmental regulations – of the order of €15,000. This reduces his/her income to €18,000,” he said. Based a 60-hour week, he said, that is a ‘grand total of €5.76 per hour and includes working Sundays, and bank holidays’. “That’s less than half the minimum hourly wage and is an absolute disgrace,” he added.
“There’ll be those who shrug their shoulders at that. But those people won’t be getting by on four- or five-hours’ broken sleep per night for the 10 weeks of calving and they are not the ones who are milking cows twice a day, every day, every week. We have no problem calling it for what it is: a disgrace.
“The State and its officials can protest all they like about the ‘support’ they give and their good intentions. The rest of us – and certainly ICMSA’s members – have to deal with the actual income; they can’t pay the bank or bills with ministerial intentions,” he said.
The ICMSA president has again called on Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue to convene an all-sector farm summit. “This is so that the collapse in both incomes and confidence right across all sectors of Irish farming can be identified and addressed,” he said.