Dairy sector driving farmer concerns over red tape and bureaucracy
The extent to which red tape and bureaucracy is a concern to farmers is driven in large part by dairy farmers, according to ifac.
The latest edition of the annual Irish Farm Report from the accounting and professional services firm pointed to red tape as the biggest concern for Irish farmers across the sector.
48% of respondents to the ifac survey stated that the amount of rules, regulations and bureaucracy was their biggest concern, meaning that issue has again risen to the top of the pile of farmer concerns.
However, this issues varies in importance across farming sectors, Philip O'Connor, the head of farm support for ifac.
O'Connor explained to Agriland: "So when we look at as the [all sector]…input/output prices are around 44%, 45%, and rules and regulations are at 48%...so they're the two key worries when you look at it as an 'all sector'.
"However, when you kind of delve a bit more into the figures then, it's the number one concern when you look at dairy, whereas input/output prices is a higher concern when you look at beef," O'Connor added.
For tillage farmers, input/output prices were the main concern for over 80% of farmer respondents, highlighting the variability of concerns across sectors.
O'Connor also noted that the ifac survey was carried out in November, so that dairy farmer sentiment may have been swayed by a lack of clarity, at that time, over the extension of Ireland's nitrates derogation, which was not confirmed until December.
However, he also noted that the nitrates issue "hasn't gone away".
"The nitrates [derogation issue] has just been parked, but it's still there. We all know it's there. So you can see why that's still a huge concern with dairy," O'Connor said.
The ifac farm support head said: "So, when you looked at it as the overall farming sector, input/output prices and bureaucracy were pretty much similar, there was only a percent or two in difference in it.
"But it varied a little bit when you go into the sectors, because input/output price is definitely number one by a mile with tillage, it was just under number one for beef, but in the dairy sector, bureaucracy is still number one.
According to O'Connor, the decreasing milk price in the second half of last year did not, at the time the survey was carried out, dent confidence in the dairy sector.
"Positivity was strong in the dairy sector, despite the milk prices coming down in November, which kind of shows that, to me, dairy farmers are still positive about the sector," he said.
O'Connor added: "Price is short term. Prices go down, prices come up, whereas regulation is a long-term impact on the industry. So it doesn't surprise me [bureaucracy] is the biggest concern [for dairy]."
"Milk price is very cyclical, it goes up and down, whereas regulation can have long-term impacts on an industry."
Despite the extension of the nitrates derogation, the three-year period granted by the EU may not stave off concern for dairy farmers, even if the immediate danger was resolved in December, the ifac representative suggested.
"In fairness to the government and what they did, if they could have got more, they would have got more. But three years...we're already in year one. Give it 18 months and we'll all be talking about nitrates again," he said.
O'Connor suggested that when the ifac survey is carried out in November 2026, concern over bureaucracy and the derogation may not fall significantly for dairy farmers.
"When we do this the survey this November, will they still list it? I don't think it's going to decrease massively."
"I think rules and regulations is a huge concern around the dairy industry. I don't think it's anti-rules and regulations. It's the impact all the rules and regulations will have on their ability to farm profitably," he said.
"We do ask a little bit around slurry storage and stuff like that. So I think...what it really gets down to is the rules and regulations impacting on the amount of cows that you can have. And that directly affects profitability," O'Connor added.
