October Budget was low point of 2018 for Tipperary ICMSA president Pat McCormack

Tipperary ICMSA president Pat McCormack is one year into his tenure as president of the ICMSA, but, as he reflects on that, he wonders that though he is a year older, is he a year wiser.

There have been many challenges over the past year, with high points and low points.

Among the low points was the October Budget.

“I was extremely disappointed with the Budget. We put forward the Farm Management Deposit Scheme over the past number of years and that didn’t come through. You can blame the Fine Gael party, but you can blame all those who supported them as well to get the Budget through for not having it as part of it. I think it is one critical thing the Government can do for the family farm,” he says.

The high point was seeing the resilience of farm families to get through the challenges over 2018.

“We have had a snow storm, a fodder crisis in April, a drought with a significant fodder crisis right through the summer, and you find that farmers are looking forward with optimism,” says Pat.

He also points out that there are huge challenges facing the next generation.

“I suppose generational renewal is a critical one given that there is in and around less than 6 per cent of farmers under 35 years and a significant over the age of 65. The next decade will see a significant change in the structure of agriculture in Ireland and the farm family,” he says.

Part of this has been huge consolidation and expansion of holdings that has been helped by long farm leases.

“I suppose the one thing farm families are is they are flexible to change and I think change will be inevitable,” says Pat

The ICMSA leader points out that his association trades itself as the family farm organisation, and highlights that whether it is Ornua or Bord Bia, when they go across the globe they all put up the slide of a lovely green field with ditches around it and three generations of farm families crossing it. “Our Government and Ministers need to back that up on Budget Day and other days and make it economically sustainable for farm families,” he says