FARMING:DISRUPTION TO milk deliveries from farms and declining numbers of livestock at marts are among the difficulties experienced by farmers during this cold spell.
While there has been an improvement in the secondary road network, which is now being gritted, there were calls yesterday for a more co-ordinated approach between the Ministers for Transport and Agriculture, local authorities and farming and rural groups.
Fine Gael agriculture spokesman Andrew Doyle claimed failure to improve secondary roads would lead to dairy farmers having to dump milk. “A system must be put in place where smaller more mobile milk-collection vehicles are positioned in accessible locations where farmers can deliver their milk for transportation onward.”
Jackie Cahill, president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, said farmers in Wicklow, north Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny were becoming increasingly frustrated at the inability of local authorities, processors and co-ops to co-ordinate road gritting and milk collection.
Meanwhile, marts have reported a 50 per cent drop in trade from November 22nd to December 4th, while sales dropped from 66,000 head to 42,000. Meat Industry Ireland, representing the main meat-processing plants, said its members had also experienced a drop in the number of cattle available for slaughter.
The normal weekly throughput was 35,000 to 36,000 animals, but in the past week this had fallen to below 30,000.