The Irish Farmers’ Association is delivering for farmers; however, it is not good enough at highlighting all that it does, and conversations around what the IFA has failed to do rather than what it has achieved are too regular, according to Martin Stapleton, IFA presidential candidate.
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal at his home in Oola, Co Limerick, the dairy farmer said that he believes that the IFA can do way better on a number of other issues, including the environment.
“I think to a certain extent we have a reduced capacity to negotiate.
“We need to build better relationships with our Department, our food purchasers and food processors, and get back to negotiation.
“We need to get to a situation whereby in any proposals we’re rejecting there has to be a counter-proposal, because if you’re not counter-proposing a proposal you don’t like, you’re not relevant in the conversation or negotiation.
“Because we’re not good enough at proposing what we will do, our ability to negotiate has been reduced over what it was seen to be 10, 15, 20 years ago. That’s a major problem we need to sort out,” he said.
When asked what one thing he would have done differently over the last 12 months, if he had been in current IFA president Tim Cullinan’s shoes, he said he would have acted sooner on the protests over the derogation.
“I think it’s important to say that I say this from a perspective that every president comes in to do the best they can. Timing – I think sometimes I would have reacted quicker to some of the issues. I think sometimes his timing has been not sharp enough. Perhaps we weren’t early enough with the protests around the derogation to make a real difference.”
Stapleton fully believes that the IFA will be Ireland’s major farming organisation in 20 years’ time. However, he said the organisation is in need of a structural shake-up.
“We need to look at our branches and county executives from the point of view of making them more efficient. County executives are supposed to represent a meeting of branch delegates and we don’t have enough branch delegates attending county executives for them to be as effective as they could be,” he said.
The cut to the derogation will not impact the Stapleton family farm, as it is below the 220kg organic N/ha threshold.
“My reading of this is that while we maintain the 250kg in some areas, future testing of water might allow us to change the map if the water quality improves or is seen to improve. I’m under no illusion that for some farms in this country next year 250kg won’t be allowed.
IFA presidential candidate Martin Stapleton at his home in Oola, Co Limerick. \ Odhran Ducie
“There’s no evidence I can see that a flat-line cap on stocking rate is going to improve water quality.
“If we get to a stage over the coming years where water quality is seen to improve it won’t be because of the cap in the stocking rate, it will be because of the extensive number of measures we have put in place as dairy farmers and all farmers over the last three or four years.”
On the Dutch vote to ban calf imports, he said that “within the EU there’s no mechanism that I can see that will stop cross-border trade, except in the context of something like disease or something like that”.
The Limerick man also hit out at the lack of planning around calf numbers in the context of dairy expansion almost a decade ago.
“When the focus was entirely on growth of milk, when you go back to 2015, 2016, enough thought wasn’t put into it by our Government, by our advisers and, consequently, by farmers.”
The IFA’s consistent, yet undelivered, demand for support of €300/suckler cow in numerous budgets is “recognition of the amount of money that’s needed for the suckler cow to stand on her own two feet”, Stapleton said.
“Without that support, it’s inevitable that suckler cow numbers will drop.
“In specific areas of this country, the suckler cow is needed to maintain both the economic viability of a farm and a community and also the ecological systems that are in place.
“I am completely against rewilding. That’s a complete cop-out. Talk about closing down our communities and asking people to go live in towns - that’s not the way we want to develop our country. Especially in vulnerable areas, it’s absolutely necessary that we focus on maintaining the suckler cow and making the suckler cow economically viable. I say that fully in the knowledge that it’s been a long time since the suckler cow, or a significant number of suckler cows, could leave enough of profit that you could call it a living.”
“I really worry, having visited many counties in the west of Ireland, especially having spent a day in west Mayo and a day in west Cork, about the age profile of sheep farmers and their attitude, that ‘no one’s going to be doing this in a couple of years’ and ‘what’s going to happen to the mountains’.
“You need to keep these areas properly farmed and properly controlled.
“The vulnerable sectors and the vulnerable areas in particular have to be supported economically to a certain extent to use the expression whatever the cost,” he said.
Tillage farmers should get a support payment in this year’s budget, according to Stapleton.
“It’s the one sector that everybody wants to grow. I think there should be a support mechanism to keep tillage land in tillage. Within the tax code for example, within the long-term lease and income tax exemption there’s instruments there that you could use to encourage farmers that are in tillage to stay in tillage and possibly to encourage farmers to grow the percentage of tillage that they have,” he said.
IFA presidential candidate Martin Stapleton with his dog. \ Odhran Ducie
Stapleton is clear that the IFA is not anti-environment.
“I’ve met a huge number of farmers over the last few months. There are very few of them climate change deniers, very few. We all want to do our best.
“The president has to be the main spokesperson for the IFA but I think we need to use our senior staff much more often in public debates around what we are doing and how we’re doing it.”
Without young people coming into this industry, there’s no future for farmers
There’s a huge disconnect between the IFA and young people at the minute, the Limerick dairy farmer said.
“Young farmers, especially, don’t see the IFA as being relevant. Without young people coming into this industry, there’s no future for farmers. “We need young people coming into the IFA to maintain that conveyor belt, which we’ve had for 70 years,” he said.
Stapleton also said that the spirit of volunteerism has waned. “Worryingly now, you’d have to look around and say there’s not enough young people or young active farmers willing to play a role.
“We need to create a culture in the IFA where young people, women, and genuine hard-working professional farmers feel safe and valued to come in and make a contribution,” he said.
Favourite film: Shawshank Redemption.
Barry’s or Lyon’s: I’m not fussy.
Hobbies: I’m a keen sports fan – hurling, rugby, soccer, in that order.
The Irish Farmers’ Association is delivering for farmers; however, it is not good enough at highlighting all that it does, and conversations around what the IFA has failed to do rather than what it has achieved are too regular, according to Martin Stapleton, IFA presidential candidate.
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal at his home in Oola, Co Limerick, the dairy farmer said that he believes that the IFA can do way better on a number of other issues, including the environment.
“I think to a certain extent we have a reduced capacity to negotiate.
“We need to build better relationships with our Department, our food purchasers and food processors, and get back to negotiation.
“We need to get to a situation whereby in any proposals we’re rejecting there has to be a counter-proposal, because if you’re not counter-proposing a proposal you don’t like, you’re not relevant in the conversation or negotiation.
“Because we’re not good enough at proposing what we will do, our ability to negotiate has been reduced over what it was seen to be 10, 15, 20 years ago. That’s a major problem we need to sort out,” he said.
When asked what one thing he would have done differently over the last 12 months, if he had been in current IFA president Tim Cullinan’s shoes, he said he would have acted sooner on the protests over the derogation.
“I think it’s important to say that I say this from a perspective that every president comes in to do the best they can. Timing – I think sometimes I would have reacted quicker to some of the issues. I think sometimes his timing has been not sharp enough. Perhaps we weren’t early enough with the protests around the derogation to make a real difference.”
Stapleton fully believes that the IFA will be Ireland’s major farming organisation in 20 years’ time. However, he said the organisation is in need of a structural shake-up.
“We need to look at our branches and county executives from the point of view of making them more efficient. County executives are supposed to represent a meeting of branch delegates and we don’t have enough branch delegates attending county executives for them to be as effective as they could be,” he said.
The cut to the derogation will not impact the Stapleton family farm, as it is below the 220kg organic N/ha threshold.
“My reading of this is that while we maintain the 250kg in some areas, future testing of water might allow us to change the map if the water quality improves or is seen to improve. I’m under no illusion that for some farms in this country next year 250kg won’t be allowed.
IFA presidential candidate Martin Stapleton at his home in Oola, Co Limerick. \ Odhran Ducie
“There’s no evidence I can see that a flat-line cap on stocking rate is going to improve water quality.
“If we get to a stage over the coming years where water quality is seen to improve it won’t be because of the cap in the stocking rate, it will be because of the extensive number of measures we have put in place as dairy farmers and all farmers over the last three or four years.”
On the Dutch vote to ban calf imports, he said that “within the EU there’s no mechanism that I can see that will stop cross-border trade, except in the context of something like disease or something like that”.
The Limerick man also hit out at the lack of planning around calf numbers in the context of dairy expansion almost a decade ago.
“When the focus was entirely on growth of milk, when you go back to 2015, 2016, enough thought wasn’t put into it by our Government, by our advisers and, consequently, by farmers.”
The IFA’s consistent, yet undelivered, demand for support of €300/suckler cow in numerous budgets is “recognition of the amount of money that’s needed for the suckler cow to stand on her own two feet”, Stapleton said.
“Without that support, it’s inevitable that suckler cow numbers will drop.
“In specific areas of this country, the suckler cow is needed to maintain both the economic viability of a farm and a community and also the ecological systems that are in place.
“I am completely against rewilding. That’s a complete cop-out. Talk about closing down our communities and asking people to go live in towns - that’s not the way we want to develop our country. Especially in vulnerable areas, it’s absolutely necessary that we focus on maintaining the suckler cow and making the suckler cow economically viable. I say that fully in the knowledge that it’s been a long time since the suckler cow, or a significant number of suckler cows, could leave enough of profit that you could call it a living.”
“I really worry, having visited many counties in the west of Ireland, especially having spent a day in west Mayo and a day in west Cork, about the age profile of sheep farmers and their attitude, that ‘no one’s going to be doing this in a couple of years’ and ‘what’s going to happen to the mountains’.
“You need to keep these areas properly farmed and properly controlled.
“The vulnerable sectors and the vulnerable areas in particular have to be supported economically to a certain extent to use the expression whatever the cost,” he said.
Tillage farmers should get a support payment in this year’s budget, according to Stapleton.
“It’s the one sector that everybody wants to grow. I think there should be a support mechanism to keep tillage land in tillage. Within the tax code for example, within the long-term lease and income tax exemption there’s instruments there that you could use to encourage farmers that are in tillage to stay in tillage and possibly to encourage farmers to grow the percentage of tillage that they have,” he said.
IFA presidential candidate Martin Stapleton with his dog. \ Odhran Ducie
Stapleton is clear that the IFA is not anti-environment.
“I’ve met a huge number of farmers over the last few months. There are very few of them climate change deniers, very few. We all want to do our best.
“The president has to be the main spokesperson for the IFA but I think we need to use our senior staff much more often in public debates around what we are doing and how we’re doing it.”
Without young people coming into this industry, there’s no future for farmers
There’s a huge disconnect between the IFA and young people at the minute, the Limerick dairy farmer said.
“Young farmers, especially, don’t see the IFA as being relevant. Without young people coming into this industry, there’s no future for farmers. “We need young people coming into the IFA to maintain that conveyor belt, which we’ve had for 70 years,” he said.
Stapleton also said that the spirit of volunteerism has waned. “Worryingly now, you’d have to look around and say there’s not enough young people or young active farmers willing to play a role.
“We need to create a culture in the IFA where young people, women, and genuine hard-working professional farmers feel safe and valued to come in and make a contribution,” he said.
Favourite film: Shawshank Redemption.
Barry’s or Lyon’s: I’m not fussy.
Hobbies: I’m a keen sports fan – hurling, rugby, soccer, in that order.
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