ICMSA concern over fodder crisis

THE newly elected ICMSA president Pat McCormack has called on the Minister for Agriculture to ‘get to grips’ with two key issues for farmers in Wicklow and throughout the country.

He raised concern about a looming fodder crisis and said that many farms are threatened by this.

Mr McCormack said that it is already obvious that supports will have to be put in place to ensure that farmers can get additional fodder into affected areas at a reasonable cost or that concentrates can be subsidised for the farmers impacted.

But he also cautioned that matters will be made considerably worse if the problems around shipping calves are not addressed and dealt with in a way that preserves this hugely important outlet and maintains prices.

‘Additional fodder will be needed in certain areas and we’ll be looking for the Minister for Agriculture, Food & Marine to provide support for the transportation and purchase of this fodder,’ he said.

Mr McCormack also raised the issue of live exports and said that it is essential that the shipping issue is resolved in advance of the fast-approaching calving season.

‘ The calving season is only weeks away and with over 1.5 million calves being born between now and the end of May, it is essential that the shipping issue is resolved in advance of the this and that we have adequate capacity to get to our markets. Any threat to that trade – coming on top of a fodder crisis – really compounds an already bad situation and pushes already stressed farms to the edge,’ he said.

On the long-term issues, Mr. McCormack said that the Brexit situation remains a major threat to the Irish Agri-food sector and the conclusion of a satisfactory deal on this matter is by no means assured.

He was adamant that given the nature and size of the threat to our beef sector presented by Mercosur that Ireland had no alternative but to block it ‘without any apology to anyone’.

‘I will endeavour to come forward with positive and reasonable solutions while in no way lessening the commitment to defending the interests of the family farms that are ICMSA’s core membership and the economic backbone of rural Ireland,’ concluded the new ICMSA president.