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Dairy Industry Ireland (DII) director Conor Mulvihill has urged farmers to call out their neighbours who are letting down the agriculture sector with bad practice over the Christmas period.
Mulvihill was speaking at a ‘Shaping the Future of Dairy: Ag tech solutions for dairy production and climate’ event in Lyons, Co Kildare, on Wednesday.
He said now that we are in the winter period and even though deadlines for completing some agricultural activities have passed, a small minority of farmers may break the rules.
“This might be a controversial [issue] I think, but enforcement is a nettle that needs to be grasped,” he said.
Unacceptable
“We know neighbours and friends that are causing [problems] for us all and it needs to be like the smoking ban; it needs to become socially unacceptable."
Mulvihill said that these actions are needed after much of mainstream media had a negative attitude towards agriculture in terms of climate change and methane emissions.
However, due to innovations and changes, such as farm emissions being down 2.6% since 2023, he said that media attention has now shifted towards transport and data centres instead.
“I’ll be home in Limerick on Christmas Day and I guarantee you I’ll see a [slurry] tank running around the place,” added Mulvihill.
“We have to not turn a blind eye on all that or else we’re cruising in the wrong direction.”
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