More certainty around regulations and a different approach to schemes are required in order to assist generational renewal. That’s according to Barryroe Co-op chair John O’Brien.

“We have to decide whether we are about parks and wildlife or about productive farming. I’m all for productive farming, because that’s what and where I’m from, and I’m not seeing it being helped or developed at the moment. Succession is a nationwide issue and the impact of it is being seen in real time.”

Regulatory certainty would help, as he said some older farmers have held off investing because they’re unsure if their children want to take on the farm. In some cases, like this, when a child does want to farm but slurry storage or farm upgrades haven’t taken place, the level of investment required can prove inhibitive and they either leave dairy production or farming entirely.

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Speaking after a successful centenary celebration at the west Cork co-op last weekend, where over 3,000 people attended, he said: “We peaked at 709 suppliers back in 1958 because we had an agricultural adviser in the co-op and it brought us through a challenging economic time. Forty years later, numbers halved, but they’re dwindling quickly now.”

Since 1998, Barryroe Co-op has lost 163 milk suppliers, with 175 farmers currently delivering milk from their catchment to Carbery in Ballineen. Conservative estimates put this figure at closer to 150 by 2030, and O’Brien felt that a priority on production in productive farming areas was a must.

“We need to reconsider the use of schemes in these areas. A good strong rural economy is needed and the way we’re going at the moment, we’re killing that.

“We need to refocus on what we’re good at, because if we have a bust in our economy, will we have a strong enough agricultural economy to drag us out of it like it has done before?”