A generational renewal programme for suppliers of Kerry Dairy Ireland (KDI) is imminent, the business’s CEO has said.

While the exact details are unclear, KDI CEO Pat Murphy told a Kerry IFA meeting on Thursday last that the scheme will be announced in the coming weeks and have a focus on new entrants.

“We are going to come out with a proposal over the next number of weeks around how we create a fund in KDI to try and encourage younger people to get into farming, because it’s not just farmers’ sons,” he explained.

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Access to land

“It’s people who have no access to land today but are inside in agricultural colleges in Clonakilty or Pallaskenry and might want access to land. How do we get those people into farming?”

Tirlán’s generational renewal programme offers a 2/cl bonus for new entrants and 2c/l pre-payment for family successors.

Farm succession was a much debated topic at the meeting, which had a dairy focus and heard from Teagasc director Frank O’Mara as well as Murphy.

Kerry Macra chair and IFA member Mark Riordan said students need to be taught as part of their Green Cert how to start a conversation around succession at home with their parents or whoever they are farming with.

Addressing O’Mara, Riordan said: “You could introduce to the curriculum in the colleges soft skills, talking about the handover. We’re not trying to push out our mothers, our fathers, our grandparents. We’re not trying to do that.

“We want to see the best for them too, but sometimes the hardest part of that is actually just having the conversation on the ground,” he said.

Kerry IFA chair Jason Fleming highlighted the need for a workable retirement scheme.

“We need a proper retirement scheme. The last one we had I thought it was a fairly good scheme.

“There was only one pitfall, where the mom and dad that were retiring could not help out on the farm,” Fleming added.