The failure of 30 per cent of Irish dairy farmers to provide mandatory health certificates for their dairy herds by July 1st has been described as disappointing by the Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr Noel Davern.
Speaking to journalists at the national open day on dairying at the Teagasc research farm at Solohead, Limerick, he said he understood that since the deadline certs had been flooding in.
Farmers were given until July 1st to provide health certs for their herds to satisfy EU dairy hygiene regulations. A dispute between farm organisations and the Irish Veterinary Union delayed the process but this was recently resolved.
Farmers who do not have the certification can continue to supply milk but it cannot enter the food chain and must be used for calf feed and other purposes. Milk from certified and non-certified herds must now be separated in dairy processing facilities.
The processors have indicated they cannot carry the cost of having to segregate the milk, especially milk which cannot be used for drinking, cheese-making or in butter, the most lucrative spin-off from processing.
Mr Davern said he understood some co-operatives had 100 per cent compliance but there were some problems with small, less well organised farmers who had yet to deliver certificates.
There is considerable concern in the industry about the low level of certification which could endanger export markets, especially those outside the EU. Mr Padraig Walshe, chairman of the IFA's dairy committee, appealed to farmers who had not yet supplied their certificates to do so. About 5,000 farmers attended the event where there was great interest in the new "supermilk" produced to a blueprint developed at Moorpark Research Centre, Fermoy, Co Cork.