This week there has been better news for Dairy farmers, with the news that Tender offers for Skimmed Milk Powder(SMP) have been accepted by The European Commission.
This is set to be a sure-tell sign that there are improvements on the horizon in the dairy industry.
Prices accepted were E1,850 per tonne from Belgium, which represents over 6% back on current market prices.
That being said the tender has split countries on whether it should be accepted or not.
A vote was held and 21 countries voted in favour while 5 were against, and two countries were not present.
The news means that a baseline price accepted by the EU will start shifting SMP intervention stock across the rest of the EU.
The deal, should it go through, has been predicted to be worth up to E650million in stock.
In other news with regards Ireland’s Dairy sector there has been news of potential room for expansion in the sector.
This was the message from Teagasc, as new results released by the Central Statistics office showed areas for potential expansion.
Teagasc now say that thre is huge potential for expansion of the dairy sector in western counties. They say this is because there is adequate ladn available.
The results were published by the Central Statistics office ahead of Teagasc’s dairy open day in Moorepark.
The results released show that there has been a significant rise experienced in dairy farming in counties such as Offaly, Westmeath and Laois. Laois saw an increase of 46% in the number of cows from 2010-2016, and Teagasc expect this to spred to neighbouring counties.
The results also showed that Carlow and Kildare, two big tillage counties, have seen big increases in dairy cows numbers of late, and this is expected to increase further.
This expected increase in numbers is thought to be down to the profability of dairy farming in comparison to toher farmers, highlighted by the results of the recent National Farm survey.
Dairy farmers were found to earn over E50,000 per year, in comparison to just over E30,000 earned by Tillage farmers, and just over E12,000 suckler farmers earner.
Teagasc say that unlike other countries, Irish farmers do not have to be massive operators to make a profit in the dairy sector, with farms carrying 80 to 100 cows making a very good living on an efficient system.
With recent disspointing milk price increases of 1cent per litre for May milk, and further increases expected for June, it is not all doom and gloom in the dairy sector.
Butter prices have increased recently by 17%, SMP by 14%, WMP by nearly 9% and cheddar by over 7% since late April.
Source: THAT’S FARMING
Link: http://www.thatsfarming.com/news/dairy-update-good-news-expansion
