An extra 5,000 people will be needed to work on dairy farms by 2025.
Pat Dillon, head of animal and grassland research at Teagasc, was speaking on Tuesday at the Teagasc National Dairy conference in Cork, where he outlined his views on where Ireland’s dairy industry is heading.
He said change within Irish dairy farming is altering the way farms are structured:
“In 2000, just 4% of Ireland’s milk output was produced on farms that supplied more than 450,000 litres of milk. Whereas in 2014, over 35% of the milk was produced on farms supplying more than 450,000 litres of milk.
“This trend is set to continue, creating opportunities for farm assistants, farm managers and collaborative arrangements between farmers,” Dillon said.
A farm producing 450,000 litres of milk is roughly equivalent to a 90-cow farm.
“To achieve this, farms must be enjoyable places to work, we must train more young people in the skills of profitable farming, and dairy farmers must improve their skills to manage people better,” he said.
Speaking about the competitiveness of Irish dairy farming, he presented data showing that in comparison to Ireland’s main competitors on the world dairy market, larger Irish farms (130 cows) have the lowest cash costs as a percentage of milk output than any other country. Whereas the average Irish farm (70 cows) was comparable with the lowest-cost competitors.
Listen to a discussion with 23-year-old Co Cavan farmer Brian Gilsenan, who has just completed the Teagasc Professional Dairy Farm Management course and spoke at the conference:
Listen to "What's involved in Teagasc's professional dairy farm management course?" on Spreaker.