Ireland may not have enough trained young people to expand milk production, one of Ireland's top dairy farmers has warned.
Jim Dwyer, who runs an intensive diary business at Moneymore, Borris-in-Ossory, Co Tipperary, said that just 8 per cent of Irish farmers were under 35 years old. "This, combined with the reduced numbers of young people pursuing agricultural training courses, will result in a major deficit in skilled people to drive an internationally competitive dairy industry in the future."
Mr Dwyer told a conference, A New Roadmap for Education, Research and Innovation, in UCD that there were great opportunities to develop the size of the sector.
"Countries like New Zealand have operated methods such as 'share farming' that have given young people an entry platform.
"In Ireland, our record over the past two decades in ensuring a stream of dairy farmer successors has been abysmal," he said.
Mr Dwyer was also highly critical of dairy processors and said the boards of managements of co-operatives did not have the capacity to service the current needs of the industry. "They are selected on the basis of politics, not on ability."
Mr Dwyer said Irish scientists could turn global warming to the advantage of the dairy sector by developing grass varieties to take advantage of the longer growing seasons predicted.