“Thinking of entering dairy farming, but don’t want to milk cows?”

That was the provocative headline in a Glanbia advertisement in advance of the Ploughing Championships.

Pat Ryan, senior farm development manager with Glanbia, said that the company is trying to link people together in order to deliver on expansion plans.

“Most of the growth will come from existing dairy farmers, but many of them are limited by land, which will be the new quota,” he said.

“We are trying to link people together – whether it is in heifer rearing, contract forage growing or share farming,” he explained. Some are people who plan to enter dairy farming in the coming years, but want to ease their way in, gradually building up their expertise and infrastructure.

Pat Ryan said that initial analysis of a milk supplier survey currently under way is showing that growth plans remain very much in track.

“We also have a large pool of new entrants but most will not come on stream until 2016,” he said.