There was palpable frustration among farmers at the Wicklow and Wexford ICMSA meeting in the Woodenbridge Hotel on Wednesday night. It was not just the milk price cuts announced in the days leading up to the meeting, but also the pressures of an abnormal spring for that part of the country. Wicklow and Wexford were among the worst hit in terms of snow that fell during the storm.
Farmers said that the lack of grass growth, tiredness coming to the end of calving season and heavy workloads when cattle should be out at grass, meant that a cut to the milk price couldn’t have come at a lower ebb.
Glanbia board member and Wexford dairy farmer John Murphy fielded many questions at the meeting. They ranged from accusations of a "top-heavy management" and how the board decides its milk price. Other farmers asked what the purpose is of investment in value-added products if it does not yield anything for the farmer.
“Milk prices are likely to be down for the next six months, Ornua is talking about 29c/l next month. Hopefully 30c will be the bottom,” Murphy said. “On the KPMG review our price is second behind Carbery, that is not good enough. We need to be number one. As a board we are ambitious on milk price.”
He added that a cut has been coming for the last few months, echoing comments from the Ornua general manager Joe Collins in the Irish Farmers Journal, this week.
“If you were to fix next month’s price today it would be 30c/l, but hopefully that will change by the time the board meets four weeks from now,” Murphy said. “We don’t encourage farmers to expand. We react to the wall of milk that comes in to us and there is pent up frustration after 30 years of milk quotas.”
Surveys of co-op members in recent years showed plans to expand in milk production, Murphy said that Glanbia is legally obliged to take in all milk produced up to 2020 with no charge, but this can be reviewed after that date.
All in all, he concluded that the co-op itself is in a strong position to weather any milk price storm. This year it will have a fixed price trading scheme at €5/share, in order to give new entrants a chance to buy in.
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