Word on the ground is that a new episode of data wars is about to begin and, no, this is not a sequel to the Tirlán fiasco but it does involve milk.

With the introduction of nitrates banding now just weeks away, doubts still remain as to how the Department of Agriculture is going to manage the new rules.

The Department currently doesn’t have access to individual farmers’ milk data, so how will it know what band to assign each herd to?

The only people with this data are the farmer themselves, the milk processor and ICBF. The Dealer understands that the farmer would need to give permission for either the processor or ICBF to share that data with the Department, which is unlikely to happen, especially if they’re in the high band.

The introduction of banding is the most drastic change to the nitrates directive since it was introduced, yet there still hasn’t been an economic impact assessment of the changes on Irish agriculture.