'I never misled our members or gave them false hope' - McCormack

Pat McCormack leaves the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) a considerably more united one than he first emerged into 14 years ago.

“It’s fair to say that ICMSA at committee level, as well as at national council level, wasn’t in a good place when I became dairy chair in 2009. The previous year, three or four members had walked off the dairy committee. There was no policy rationale to it. It was purely politics.

“Since becoming deputy president in 2011, I’ve been given the full support of national council. That’s a reflection, I suppose, of trying to work and engage with all people that had issues within the organisation.

“It’s no secret that there was a [Jackie] Cahill camp and an [Pat] O’Rourke camp, I would have done as much or more talking with the O’Rourke camp than with the Cahill camp [which McCormack was seen as closer to]. We brought in rules as regards maximum age on council, that has had a huge effect on the ambiance of the place.

“National council meetings are now straight down to business and getting on with policy issues.

“Some of those meetings in my term as president were online [during COVID-19], which was hugely challenging for our membership. I’d like to acknowledge the role that John Enright and Paul Smith had to play in that, Paul always got us online”.

Tipperary and Kilkenny

Is ICMSA becoming dominated by Tipperary and Kilkenny farmers? “We’re representing dairy farmers, who are predominantly full-time farmers. That’s a huge challenge. I was lucky that I’m only half an hour from John Feely House (ICMSA’s Limerick headquarters), and I’m pretty much at the geographical centre of the heartbeat of the dairy industry. That said, we have Shane O’Loughlin (Wicklow) the farm business chair, and Des Morrison (Sligo), and Lorcan McCabe (Cavan) was deputy president for four and a half years. You can’t ask for a greater geographical spread than that.

“Lorcan would have been seen as potentially contesting the presidency.

“He’s a farmer to the fingertips, and the travelling from Cootehill was challenging, so his decision was very understandable,” he said.

The new ICMSA president, Denis Drennan, is somebody “who’s bringing energy”, McCormack said.

“He’s been the rural affairs chair, which has responsibility for the environmental side, and the focus has moved from the dairy committee to it.”

His own presidency

“I’d like to feel the thing I brought to the association was honesty. The honesty of someone who had to go home and milk their own cows. I never misled our members or gave them false hope. We had plenty of that in 2023 with the derogation.

“I spent more time on the dairy committee in the quota era than outside quotas. Dairy farming has transitioned from an average herd of 35 cows to 92. It’s inevitable that will continue, although not at the same rate. There was great opportunity for new entrants, but it’s forgotten by many that a superlevy bill of €70m was paid in 2015, I paid my part of that.”

McCormack became president at 39 and leaves office aged just 45. “What’s paramount is that it’s people who are farming and want to farm who are representing farmers. We don’t want people close to retirement. I’d hope to be milking cows in 20 years time.”

Support for dairy farmers

“We don’t have enough slurry storage for cows, but farmers responded to the Government’s plan to expand dairy production by 50% post-quota.

“The problem with slurry is on the farms it’s being produced on, yet the Government in the last budget gave a 70% grant not to dairy or cattle farms, but to tillage farms to build slurry storage capacity.

“As a sector, if we are to maintain our derogation at 220kg, we need to see the trend in water quality results improve, and that’s going to be challenging. This back end has been very difficult; farming by calendar date has proven hugely challenging.

“The Government needs a carrot, not a stick; we need to incentivise those farmers who need the facilities, not those who see an opportunity in importing slurry.

“I’d point to the difficulty for the farmer with 121 cows compared to a farmer with 119 from a TAMS perspective – I think that’s the wrong cut-off point if there has to be one.

“We pride ourselves in being the representatives of the family farm model, and we need to protect that model,” he said.

Disappointments

McCormack said that one of the disappointments of his career is that time and time again the Government has refused to implement a farm management deposit scheme for the sole trader.

“It’s flippant to call it a rainy-day policy, it’s a lifejacket. No year has proven more challenging than 2023, with the tax liability of 2022 and the lack of cashflow.

“Back since the Michael Noonan/Brendan Howlin era up to now with Michael McGrath and Paschal Donohoe; they all say it’s a good idea, without giving us the opportunity to protect ourselves from future volatility.

“Feed and energy costs now mean a base price of 33c/l is no better than the 19c/l that caused so much stress back in 2009.

“The goalposts have moved, and the Government needs to move too.”

The family farm is the model Bord Bia and Ornua use to promote our product around the world, McCormack says.

“We’ve seen the margin eroded, but it’s been a difficult year for processors too, to be fair. Hopefully the food regulator will have a set of teeth and will get about their business.

“I hope the take-home message Eamon Ryan got from our recent AGM was that farmers aren’t against environmental action, but need to make a living.”

“I’ve always had an appetite to represent farmers. I went onto the Tipperary Co-op advisory committee in 1999 (aged 21), and I’ve been there ever since. I came from a family that was steeped in farmer representation.

“The late Seán Kelly (a former ICMSA president) was influential. He’d be in Brussels, and swap over briefs with my father, who was involved in Tipperary Co-op at the time, at the end of our table.

“We’ll see what the future holds. I need to recharge my batteries, and give a bit of quality time to Joanne, who has been holding the fort, Nora-Mae and Tom. Whatever I do will be in consultation with Joanne.”