Dairy conference in Cookstown

Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Permanent Secretary, Dr Malcolm McKibbin has opened a key dairy conference in Cookstown.

The Permanent Secretary emphasised the importance of the dairy sector to the local economy and acknowledged the sector’s reliance on highly competitive export markets.

Welcoming the conference speakers, Dr McKibbin particularly thanked Allan Burgess, President of Australian Dairy Farmers saying: “We often hear of the influence and interactions of the major players in world dairy markets and I am grateful that Allan has taken time out of his busy schedule to give us an insight into the Australian Dairy Industry and another perspective of the markets in which we all operate”

Dr McKibbin emphasised the importance of increasing competitiveness. He outlined DARDs’ support for the agri-food industry through frontline technical development staff offering farm business benchmarking, short courses, challenge programmes, farm development planning and supply chain development.

Financial support is available through the Northern Ireland Rural Development Programme and £9million has been committed to activities related to Benchmarking, Focus Farms and a new Farm Family Options initiative.

The Supply Chain Development Programme, worth £2.75million, will help groups of farmers to explore market-focused initiatives in partnership with processors. In addition £21.5million has been allocated to the Processing and Marketing Grant Scheme which supports will be capital expenditure on buildings and new equipment.

A further £2.1million has been ear-marked for a marketing development grant scheme to assist agri-food businesses to enhance their marketing capability.

The Permanent Secretary outlined the Department’s support to farmers in relation to the Nitrates Directive saying: “£144million has been committed through the Farm Nutrient Management Scheme to support the construction of additional slurry storage, and technical guidance and training have been made available through DARD.” He emphasised that pressure is mounting to construct this new storage capacity by the end of this year.

Dr McKibbin also took the opportunity to remind farmers of the real threat of bluetongue and the major economic impact it could have on the industry. He stressed that farmers themselves must be responsible and help protect themselves, their neighbours and the entire Northern Ireland industry by reducing the risk of importing this disease in infected animals. He said the recent incident whereby infected animals were imported to a North Antrim farm demonstrated that the risk is real and the cost is actual - not theoretical.

Dr McKibbin finished by noting that the rise in milk prices over the last year has restored some optimism and allowed some much needed investment in the industry. “However there are challenges ahead and we need to keep focussed on being competitive, adopting latest technologies and producing higher added value products” he said.

Notes to Editors:

1. The dairy conference was attended by farmers and milk processors and organised by DARD, CAFRE Loughry Campus, The Ulster Farmer’s Union, The Dairy Council for Northern Ireland, Dairy UK and the Society of Dairy Technology.
2. All Media enquiries to DARD press office, tel: 028 9052 4619. Out of hours please contact the Duty Press Officer via pager number 076 9971 5440 and your call will be returned.