Dairy Day 2024: Co-ops at a crossroads

News this week that Kerry Co-Op and Kerry Group have reached an agreement on a proposed new ownership structure of the Kerry Group dairy business, subject to a Kerry Co-Op vote, represents a huge milestone in the history of the co-op.

This follows on from the news last week that the members of Arrabawn and Tipperary Co-Op have decided to merge their dairy businesses. Between the 1.1bn litres processed by Kerry and the 750m litres to be processed by the new entity in Tipperary, there is 1.85bn litres or 22% of Ireland’s total milk pool that could be about to change hands, affecting over 4,140 dairy farmers across Munster and up into Galway and Offaly.

While milk volumes are currently running 20% to 30% ahead of this time last year, overall milk supply in Ireland is likely to be back 2% or 3% compared to 2023.

This is the second year in a row of contraction in milk supply in Ireland which is bad news for dairy co-ops as it means processing capacity is underutilised which increases costs per litre of milk processed.

These industry concerns will be addressed at Dairy Day as Jack Kennedy sits down with Edward Carr, Sean O’Brien and Niall Matthews, the chairs of Arrabawn, Dairygold and Lakeland Dairies co-ops respectively, to discuss the future of the co-operative model in the changing climate for the dairy sector, both at home and abroad.

The outlook for milk prices will also be discussed at Dairy Day, with expert analysis from Ciaran Aylward, economist with Ornua and John Murray, director of meat, food and beverage at Bord Bia on where the dairy markets are at and where they see the market going over the next 12 to 18 months.

They will be joined on this panel by Corrigan Sowman, dairy farmer from the South Island of New Zealand who is chair of Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) and a farmer member of Fonterra’s sustainability advisory council.

Corrigan will give an overview of the situation in New Zealand where milk solids production for the first three months of the year is running over 8% higher than the same period last year.

Financial budgeting

Corrigan will also speak on other panels throughout the course of the event, including the session on financial budgeting with Laurence Shalloo, head of Moorepark and Cork dairy farmer Mike Bermingham.

This session will include an analysis of where costs have increased over the last three years, what they are in 2024 and how to do a financial budget for 2025.

Initial analysis suggests that 2024 will be a good year from a profit perspective, but costs are still out of sync due to higher usage of meal and the requirement to purchase more forage to replace grass not grown due to weather and other factors.

One of the factors some farmers are blaming for poor growth in 2024 is protected urea and poor performance by clover in terms of fixing nitrogen and providing feed for cows. David Wall from Teagasc Johnstown Castle will present data from the trials on protected urea and answer farmer concerns over the product.

Liam Dunphy, managing director of Goulding NI fertilisers is also on the panel and will share his experiences on how to get the most from protected urea and some key criteria when it comes to spreading the product.

Tipperary dairy farmer Tom Downey will highlight his experiences of managing grass in 2024, from both a fertiliser and clover perspective and what lessons he will carry into 2025.

One of those lessons will be the importance of setting up the fertiliser spreader correctly in order to get even spreading.

With this in mind, two live demonstrations of how to calibrate a fertiliser spreader will be carried out in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh with Irish Farmers Journal machinery specialists Peter Thomas Keaveny and Gary Abbott along with fertiliser spreader expert Trevor Richardson from Atkins Farm Machinery.

In short

These demonstrations will take place in the tunnel at 11am and again at 2:30pm.