And many are looking to New Zealand production systems to learn how.
Irish farm incomes are a priority and farmers are looking to the Irish government and the European Union for help to improve farm incomes across all sectors.
In the dairy sector the Irish Farmers Association are calling for income averaging to help farmers cope with volatility and for the Irish government to match the July EU €350 million aid package, under which Ireland received €11.1m.
While the payment must be used to fund measures targeted to specific categories of farmers, the IFA is clear it would rather the support was used for the provision of low-cost, short-term loans for farmers or other cashflow supports.
The latest EU provision was a production reduction scheme for the last quarter of 2016, through which farmers could receive 14.4c/l in the following spring for not producing milk, which was putting pressure on Ireland’s 16 co-operatives to increase the milk price to ensure they didn’t miss out on milk for processing.
At the recent Irish National Ploughing championships, encompassing a huge trade show with 288,000 visitors over three days, much comment was about the imminent upswing in milk prices and the general growth of the industry.
Milk technology companies reported huge interest and inquiry in parlours and automated equipment, with many reporting orders at the show for complete parlours.
“Even though they are constrained for cash now, they are planning for the future and wanting to go ahead with the upscaling they decided on with the removal of milk quotas,” Pearson International managing director Alan Pearson said.
“The susbsidies farmers receive from the EU for farm infrastructure are underpinning the demand and farmers have been quick to realise that getting a young person into their business (qualifying for another subsidy) has the effect of doubling the potential grant.
“There is a lot of talk about how New Zealand farmers have quadrupled cow numbers in 20 years while the Irish industry has stagnated with quotas and many farmers have already increased cow numbers by 50-100% – albeit off a very low base.”
Milk production rose from 5.6 billion litres in 2014 to 6.4b in the 2015 season.
One young farmer in Co Kildare converted his flat tillage cropping farm to dairy and leased a neighbour’s farm to fence into races and paddocks and milk 400 cows.
Recently investing in a NZ-style set-up with a Pearson rotary parlour with auto drafting, cleaning and cup removal, a feed pad and effluent lagoon and spray effluent application, he has put in an underpass to avoid the four daily road crossings.
“It’s a model that is repeatable in many of the Midland tillage areas,” Pearson said.
The Origin Green programme set up to prove the sustainability of Irish farms has provided a new emphasis on profitability and efficiency.
*Jackie Harrigan is in Ireland as a guest of Enterprise Ireland.
