The chairman of the IFA's national dairy committee, Mr Padraig Walshe, has called on Teagasc, the farm research and advisory agency, not to proceed with its plan to convert to organic the only dairy herd it operates in the west of Ireland. In a letter to Teagasc, Mr Walshe said: "The IFA national dairy committee supports the promotion of organic dairy farming, but this form of production will always remain a minority activity, supplying at much greater cost a small affluent market niche."