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A cap on cow numbers for new entrants should be considered “to prevent mega-herds developing”, the draft report of the Food Vision dairy group has recommended.
It is one of 17 recommendations in the report, which farm organisations and stakeholders will discuss on Monday.
"Restrictions on the upper limit of cows on new enterprises should be considered to prevent mega-herds developing and any conditions of contract for new entrants should remain over a period of years subject to review," the report says.
This action falls under a “common policy on milk intake from new entrants” proposal in the report.
Recognition
“There was recognition from stakeholders on the requirement to protect the family farm, grass-based model and maintain the sector's ambitions to attract talented new entrants into dairying to maintain the viability of the sector.
“A continuous high-growth expansion mode model of dairy farming is not seen to be consistent with this approach,” the draft report states.
It says that co-ops and farmers have shared the responsibility to protect sustainability values and, in this regard, the group recommends the need for a “consistent milk intake policy across co-ops for new entrants”.
This, it says, is where “young farmers with enterprises built on family farms, grass-based and sustainable models are prioritised”.
This action is expected to be carried out in the medium term, between 2026 and 2030.
Short-term actions
As revealed by the Irish Farmers Journal on Thursday night, 17 recommendations are proposed to be carried out in the short-, medium- and long-term.
In the short term, it is recommended that monitoring carbon production at farm level is explored and that chemical nitrogen use in the dairy sector be cut by 35% by 2025.
It also says that there should be an 80% replacement rate of CAN with protected urea by the end of 2025 for grass-based dairy systems.
Further actions in the short term include increased take-up of multi-species swards, 100% low emissions slurry spreading (LESS) for 100% of dairy farmers by 2025 and 100% adoption of milk recording by the end of 2025.
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