Ireland: Ministers urged to postpone cow banding proposal under Nitrates Action Programme

The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has called for indefinite postponement of the cow banding proposal for 2023 under the Nitrates Action Programme (NAP). ICMSA president, Pat McCormack, has repeated his call for both the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue to postpone the proposal. With just weeks until 2023, McCormack claimed that neither the department nor farmers are remotely prepared to implement the new regime in 2023, and that pushing ahead with the plans will result in “utter chaos”. “We are currently eighteen days away from January 1, 2023 when the proposed nitrate cow banding is supposed to be coming into effect, but general confusion still reigns. “And many, if not most, farmers still have only a vague understanding of what the new banding system will entail and what it means for their farm,” he said. Advertisement Cow banding Currently, the ...