The loss of Ireland’s nitrates derogation could cost directly impacted farms on average almost €40,000, according to analysis from the IFA.

Addressing the Irish Grassland Association’s (IGA) conference this week, Áine O’Connell of the IFA presented calculations from her colleague, Tadhg Buckley, which show potentially impacted farms could be back €38,564, as well as 34 cows and 200,000l.

In total, the IFA estimates there could be a dairy cow reduction of 212,276 cows, 1.2bn litres, €235m in farm income and a cumulative economic impact of €1.8bn.

‘Mood music’

However, O’Connell, the IFA’s dairy policy executive, said given recent results showing an improvement in water quality “the mood music” appears more positive going into upcoming negotiations.

“We do need to deliver on it,” she said. “The fact that we’ve stabilised trends and preliminary results show that we are actually reversing these trends, gives us a stronger card to deal with when we go to negotiate. That doesn’t mean it’s not going to be challenging,” she added.