Glanbia/Teagasc Financial Dairy Planning Programme

The programme has been developed jointly by Glanbia and Teagasc, and will be rolled out to Glanbia milk suppliers shortly.

It consists of a software tool, which will shortly be made available to Glanbia suppliers and rolled out through a series of workshops given by Teagasc advisors. The intention is to provide a toolkit which will assist farmers in planning for the kind of profitable expansion targeted in Food Harvest 2020.

Speaking from the farm of Anthony and Lisa Barrett in Longwood, Co. Meath, the Minister said: "Improving efficiency and profitability at farm level is a key theme of The Food Harvest 2020 Report, which maps out the actions required to develop and grow the agri-food sector over the next decade."

"The dairy industry is gearing up for significant expansion following the abolition of quotas in 2015, and the challenge will be to ensure that such expansion is profitable for operators at all levels of the supply chain, and sustainable in the context of potentially increased price volatility on global markets."

"This financial training programme demonstrates the best kind of co-operation between suppliers, processors and Teagasc, and will assist farmers in improving their financial management skills and increasing their business orientation."

"It is a model for collaborative action which can be built upon and used as a template for the dairy sector, and indeed for the agri food sector generally."

Concluding, the Minister said that he welcomed this initiative, and regarded as another key step in preparing for the 50 per cent expansion in dairy output targeted in Food Harvest 2020.