The final draft report of the Food Vision Dairy Group is due to be sent to Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine this week, Agriland understands.

The group convened today (Monday, May 23) in a bid to resolve some of the outstanding issues, and progress the report to completion.

It is understood that some of the aspects of the report that are still contentious relate to: the voluntary retirement/deintensification scheme; the lack of generational renewal within the proposed retirement scheme; the proposed fertiliser-reduction policy; as well as the proposed development of a common co-op policy for new entrants, among others.

Agriland also understands that representatives of the main farming organisations forfeited their lunchtime to hammer home their concerns with officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), and to ensure that their views and observations are understood and represented in the final draft report.

It is believed that Minister McConalogue will be presented with it on Wednesday (May 23), while the group will also receive a copy in the coming day or so in order to identify any anomalies within it following on from today's meeting.

The draft report has not yet been costed and Agriland understands that this is a concern for the group, which is very eager for the DAFM to present the figures associated with the various aspects of the report.

It is understood that farming organsations made a strong point, at today's meeting, that adequate funding must ringfenced to implement the key measures within the final report. 

The Food Vision Dairy Group was established by the minister at the end of January 2021, and was tasked with examining ways for the dairy sector to help achieve agricultural and land-use targets in the Climate Action Plan 2021.

A source told Agriland:

"Farms have evolved significantly over a short period of time and there is no point coming out with a 2018 reference year that might have no impact on some farmers, but might have awful impact on those that have increased production.

"So, there has to be a practicality that allows farm families to evolve, over time, to remain efficient."

The group is expected to meet again in June and although a publication date for the final report is yet unconfirmed, it expected to be completed by mid-to-late summer.

The full list of recommendations within the current version of the report are:

The Food Vision Dairy Group is chaired by former director of Teagasc, Prof. Gerry Boyle, and includes representatives from farm organisations, the co-op and dairy processing sector, state agencies, University College Dublin and officials from the DAFM.