The removal of milk quotas will result in far greater competition between Irish dairy processors for milk supply, according to a leading New Zealand scientist.

DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle Tim Mackle visited Ireland recently as a member of an international advisory team to Teagasc.

In an interview with New Zealand's Farmers Weekly, he predicted that competition between Irish dairy processors for milk supply will crank up, along with Irish dairy farmers’ pursuit of higher production when milk quotas are removed next year.

In the interview, Tim Mackle describes Irish dairy farmers as "poor cousins to the country’s beef producers in terms of political backing",

“Beef farmers have much more clout with politicians than dairy farmers," he said. "Beef is having a terrible time. But there is definitely room to move and in arable (conversions).”

Irish dairy farmers have tremendous potential to grow and harvest more pasture, the cheapest source of feed, he says.

Science capability is a common issue for Ireland and NZ, Mackle says. Luring enough good scientists from the global pool is a challenge for both.

“It leads us to collaborate, to do joint projects. For example, the forage-value project we are doing now. There is lots of opportunity there.”

DairyNZ and Teagasc have a memorandum of understanding for collaborative science work.

Mackle is quoted as saying that Ireland is arguably ahead in terms of a better supply of locally grown agricultural science graduates.

“An observation would be that in NZ in the last 10-15 years all the action has been on the farm.

“A lot of our graduates have gone farming. In Ireland there’s been no action onfarm because it’s been constrained by quotas. So a lot of their top graduates have gone into science and extension.”

However, with the lifting of the quota Irish research science might have to compete against dairy farming for talent, he says.

Irish science and research institute staffing has also been hit hard by Ireland’s financial austerity measures in government departments.

“But the common theme is that we have a lot in common – more in common post-April (next year) than we did.”

The full interview can be viewed here (registration required).