The cow quota imposed on young dairy farmers availing of milking equipment in the new Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS III) is unfair, the president of ICMSA has said.

However, Pat McCormack also told the Irish Farmers Journal that everything to do with the way that TAMS III dealt with all dairy farmers was characterised by that same sense of pretence and what he described as “quiet sabotage”.

McCormack also said that he didn’t think that young farmers had any right to feel more aggrieved than any other dairy farmer.

‘Quiet sabotage’

“Young dairy farmers should not feel singled out in any way: TAMS has been designed as a policy of quiet sabotage of all our efforts to keep dairy incomes and dairy sustainability in a workable balance,” he said.

IFA dairy chair Stephen Arthur said the move is a “complete disincentive against young farmers”.