It has been my belief for some time that those who make their living through agribusiness regard farmers merely as a conduit to increase their margins and incomes.

Recently, a farmer who sells cheese to a supermarket for €8.50/kg reported that the supermarket retails it for €22/kg. This is a case in point.

Now, we have (...) the new KTS.

Farmers have seen their EU payments being chipped away over the years with modulation, etc. These funds were supposed to go back to farmers under other schemes such as KTS. It would now appear that they are being channelled to facilitators and vets.

In the last similar scheme, the payment for joining a discussion group was €900. In the new KTS, the payment has been reduced to €750 (...).

The fact that any health plan is only a duplication of what already exists seems to make no difference to the Department.

Each farmer has to keep a register of all animal remedies in order to comply with conditions for direct payments. Dairy farmers have an additional dairy health cert signed by their vet.

From the register of remedies, it would not take much effort to see a health plan already in operation, purchases of vaccines and dosings being recorded and dates of them being administered.

Any health plan would have to include the details already recorded in the register. I vaccinate for lepto, IBR and salmonella. I stopped BVD vaccination on a cost basis rather than an animal health basis and after four years of tissue sampling. Would a new health plan require me to recommence BVD vaccination? I would challenge anyone to come up with a health plan any different than what I have in place at the moment. I cannot afford anything more.

Is there also a danger that when the three years are up that a plan will still be needed? I cannot see vets training for a scheme that will last only three years and then letting go of a nice little earner. Will it become compulsory for everyone else?

There is also a possible conflict of interest with vets in private practice setting up a health plan when they will benefit from the sale of animal remedies. (...)

It is ironic, as farmers protest here and in Europe over low prices and EU ministers hold a special meeting to discuss same, that the Department here and vets are dreaming up ways of taking money from farmers for a bogus health plan. We have herd registers, registers of remedies, quality assurance schemes and farm inspections, but the one thing we don’t have is a price to cover the cost of production.

The fact that primary food producers are not meeting the cost of production seems to be lost by everyone else in the industry. Milk would need to 50c/l today to have the same buying power in fertiliser, feed and energy compared with milk at 29c/l in 2002.

Those who have signed up to the KTS, including myself, should attend the first meeting armed with their animal remedies register and dairy health certs. If this is not sufficient for a health plan, then we should walk out. We do not need a new layer of paperwork.

It would leave some red faces in the Department as to why the funds are not taken up and would be much more effective than any march in Dublin. I hope farm organisations would support this.

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