Tag Archives: Pat McCormack

Deputy president and chairperson of ICMSA’s Dairy Committee, Pat McCormack has advised farmers to be alert to the fact that this Friday is the deadline for the Milk Quota Appeals Tribunal Hardship Scheme. With a super levy fine almost inevitable for the final year of milk quotas, an additional allocation under the Hardship Scheme would alleviate some pressure for the farmer in question, he said. Mr McCormack reminded farmers that the tribunal gives priority to small scale producers who are committed to and highly dependent on dairying and that only those producers with a total permanent quota of less than 280,000 litres, at the date of application, will be considered for an allocation under this scheme. Mr McCormack noted that if successful, the allocation is free of charge and he said that any farmer under 280,000 litres who expects to have a superlevy problem should consider applying with application forms available from the Department of Agriculture and the co-op.

Despite  the strong supply situation globally, dairy markets over the past month have shown perceptible improvements and Irish dairy farmers expect that these developments will be reflected in the Irish Dairy Board price index for June. That’s according to Pat McCormack, deputy president and chairperson of ICMSA’s dairy committee. “At this stage, there is strong evidence to suggest that the marketplace has factored in strong global supplies and a number of major market indicators have shown positive moves over the last month – actually, as recently as this week the significant product categories all went up,” said Mr McCormack. “Prices on spot milk markets have improved with the Dutch dairy quotas running close to 4% higher for butter than this time last month, increasing by 3% and WMP remaining stable. In Italy, for instance, according to the newly established Milk Monitoring Observatory (MMO), the spot milk price increased by 10.5% in the last four weeks and in the Netherlands, the spot …