‘We need to be back in division one when it comes to paying for milk’

Farmer after farmer spoke critically about Dairygold Co-op at a packed meeting in Mitchelstown that drew a crowd of over 300 people.

The loyalty bonus terms, milk price and management of the co-op were the focus of farmer anger in the main.

Here’s a flavour of the commentary from the floor on the night.

'Division three'

“The most immediate problem is the fact we’re in division three and we need to be back in division one when it comes to paying for milk.

"And the reason we’re in division three is, call a spade a spade, is because the board have not brought in, in the last year, a cost-cutting exercise, I think Dairygold are over-staffed.

“We need to see some action on the price of milk in the next three to four months and we need to see the loyalty bonus dropped . . . it’s a principle to not be forced to deal with your co-op.

“It’s not the co-op is wrong, it’s the people that are running it. Dairygold has great potential, but when you have a management and a board that’s not listening to farmers, there’s something seriously wrong.

“There’s a couple of hundred here and that in itself should send a serious message to Dairygold.”

- Bandon area supplier and former Dairygold committee member.

'Sit down with the top brass'

“We have one chance now, one chance, and if we don’t do it now we have no chance because they’ll walk all over us for the rest of the year again.

“We need to go and put a proposal forward to meet the CEO. The CEO was the CFO for long enough and he should know the figures.

“We need to sit down with the top brass… and find out what’s going on and convey it back.

“I got 90% of my stuff off them [Dairygold] every year, but for the last two or three or four months I haven’t bought a strap off them because they haven’t been supporting us. They’re penny-pinching every chance they get, out of our milk cheques."

- Kevin O’Halloran, east Cork Dairygold supplier.

'The dog isn't biting'

“Our issue is with management and how it’s being managed and the dog isn’t biting at them from a board point of view. So whether we get a list of names and get of motion of no confidence in the board, dissolve the board, I don’t know what the rules are.”

- Dairygold supplier, from the floor.

“We should have an outside person, retired from the Department or Teagasc, someone of knowledge to represent us, … because most of the board men, I don’t know them personally, but obviously they aren’t at the table at meetings addressing the management.”

- Dairygold supplier, from the floor.

Double-edged sword

“This is actually a double-edged sword because someone who is supplying 500,000l has to buy €30,000 from the co-op to qualify for the bonus. Now it might be 6c/l. It might be 8c/l in three year’s time. Once this is introduced, no-one knows where it’s going to finish up.

“As a fairly loyal supporter of my co-op, I want a co-op that I have the freedom to go elsewhere if I think they’re out of line.

“I’ve spoken to committee people that are outraged with this [loyalty scheme] and they said it was brought in in a sneaky kind of fashion that it wasn’t highlighted – they came away from meetings not even knowing that it was in. So this was underhand.”

- Dairygold supplier, from the floor.

'We own the co-op'

“If there’s people representing us inside in Dairygold and they didn’t know that this was being passed - 6c/l - there’s something seriously wrong inside in Dairygold.

“I don’t think we should have to leave the co-op or even be thinking of leaving the co-op. We own the co-op, the people before us owned the co-op, it’s not the boys that wearing the suits.”

- Willie, Cork-based Dairygold supplier, from the floor.

'Mismanagement'

“It’s the last 18 months that management has taken their foot off the pedal and we’re in division three [on milk price].

“We had area meetings here and they mentioned they were making a product, now they have the facilities in place to make the proper product. This is all mismanagement.”

- John, Dairygold supplier, from the floor.

'Lost their way'

“I think Dairygold has just lost their way as being a co-op. They think they’re a publicly limited company the way they’re trading and if they go back to working as a co-op, providing inputs at a right price and paying a milk price, everything will fall into place and we’ll all be happy.”

- John Mullins, Dairygold supplier.

Appalling language

“I am not happy with what was said last night. The whole meeting was an aggravated therapy session that lacked structure, did not progress and lacked data-backed fact and figures.

"The language used to describe the board members, management and the CEO was appalling (clowns, f*ckers, yahoos). And I can only imagine how the people at the meeting would feel if they were called these same names.”

“The loyalty bonus scheme is 6c/l produced as I am aware of. I understand that Drinagh in Carbery, who everyone is in awe of, that their loyalty scheme is 10c/litre produced (correct me if I’m wrong). Do they want Dairygold to scrap the loyalty scheme completely or do Dairygold just need to provide good-quality products at a more competitive rate?

“If all these people want to supply another co-op, do they understand that it will only make the cost of production even higher for everyone else who stays? Who else will collect their milk?

"What are the initial start-up costs to supply other co-ops with buying shares for production?

"Another point brought up was Dairygold buying milk off Kerry and running it through Dairygold plant, if a profit can be made and it reduces the total cost per litre of production isn’t that better for us?”

- Dairygold supplier, by email post-meeting, who wished to remain anonymous

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