There has to be “much swifter” action taken against dairy farmers who are breaking the rules, Gerard O’Reilly from the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) has said.

“How many chances are we going to give these guys? Out and about the last few days, I see slurry equipment out and about. It’s probably the guy that’s not here today, he probably engages in calf slaughter.

“How are we going to get a hold of these fellas? How are we going to sort it out? I think it’s a serious risk to us all at the moment,” he said at the Irish Farmers Journal’s Dairy Day on Thursday.

In response, Mick Houlihan from Bord Bia commented that about 280 out of 17,000 dairy farmers are breaking calf slaughter rules.

“As a percentage of calves born, it’s a very small percentage. But try telling the average person walking up and down Supervalu that there’s 20,000 calves slaughtered and see what sort of reaction you get.”

He said people like Gerard speaking up and making those comments is “how we move the dial on it”.

“Increasingly that’s the sort of commentary you’re starting to hear. We do the ploughing championships every year. This year, I would definitely say I had more farmers saying you need to be stricter; you need to be harder; you need to be calling out these fellas. You need to be kicking them out.

“That’s a complete change from maybe where we were three or four years ago. I do feel that things are starting to move and the peer element is starting to shift. If a movement gets behind that, the pressure is going to come from within,” he said.

Big stick

Bord Bia and the Department or anybody else “can go out all day long and shake the big stick”, Houlihan said, stating that the people who are going to disregard the rules are going to disregard the rules until they are caught.

There's a social licence piece to this and it has to be got from other farmers and they’re not going to get it, he said.

National Dairy Council (NDC) interim CEO Mark Kellar said that those who are going to attack agriculture are going to look for 2% who are 'bad actors' and that they would get a disproportionate amount of coverage.

“Those who are not following the guidelines will fall out of the system and they have to because we can’t allow the 1% or 2% to take down the 98%,” he said.