Cutbacks in the DARD budget and falling milk prices have been at the top of the agenda this week as farmers make their point about farm viability in the future.

The Fermanagh-based SDA Group attended a meeting with Gerry Lavery, Senior Finance Director and David Small, Deputy Secretary, DARD to discuss the implications of the forthcoming budget cuts on the wider farming community.

A spokesman stated aftewards: “We strongly expressed the opinion that it was more support that farmers required and not less and that if cuts were to be implemented it should be around the areas of inspections and enforcements and that if better information flow from within the department that the process of inspection would in turn be simplified. During the meeting we were encouraged that the department are doing everything in their power to keep the front line staff, i.e. the services which we receive within our local DARD offices, as they currently are.

“However the worrying issue which the officials kept stressing was that this is only the first year of cuts and that we are starting on a road of cuts expected to last for the next 4 years.

“In respect to this issue, the SDA Group took the opportunity to discuss the aims and objectives of the Agri Food Strategy board with a massive emphasis on increasing production at a time when the vast majority of primary producers are operating below cost and a Department who can’t cope with the current level of production within the industry. We questioned if an increase in production without an increase in profitability is a sensible approach for the industry in the current financial climate.” The Assembly’s Agriculture Committee was preparing to meet again this week in view of the dairy crisis and following pressure from a group of dairy farmers who met to discuss the worsening prices.

Dairy farmers are on average now receiving below 20p per litre, well below the cost of production for many. The prospects are not great in the months ahead.

The difficult weather conditions with heavy rainfall during the past two weeks has also had an effect on farming activities with second cut silage harvesting coming to a halt and farmers having to re-house their cows to avoid poaching of grass paddocks.