Before reporting progress last evening, I had been referring to the glowing tributes paid by Deputy Moher to the agricultural policy Deputy Dillon has been advocating for some years past. Deputy Moher gave us, too, a pretty graphic picture of the prestige of the industry in his area. I made the point that, in spite of the undeveloped state of agriculture, the industry was still, and would continue to be, the foundation of our entire economy. It provides a livelihood for approximately 50 per cent. of our people and produces a very large share of the national wealth.
In his introductory statement, the Minister was able to tell us that the agricultural industry in 1961 accounted for approximately 70 per cent. of our total exports. Deputy Dillon has on many occasions stated that agricultural production is capable of being doubled. This is a view to which I subscribe wholeheartedly. What is the present position? What indication have we of the efforts that are being made at the moment in relation to this industry? As I know the attitude of the Government, it is that any increase in production would be undesirable and would, in fact, lead to further difficulties for the Government.
I regard that as a shocking indictment of Government policy at a time when every Government in Europe, with an interest in agriculture, is straining every nerve and bending all its energies to increasing agricultural production. We have problems and difficulties but these problems and difficulties did not start to-day or yesterday. They are due to the fact that we have failed to look ahead and to keep abreast of developments elsewhere. We have, in particular, difficulties in the disposal of our dairy products. They are due to many causes. They are mainly due to over-concentration on our lowest priced, home-produced product, butter. They are due also to our failure to provide incentives to our dairy farmers to produce cleaner milk, milk capable of being processed into higher-priced, more diversified and more saleable products.
They are due also to the fact that the costs of production are too high. They are too high because the milk capacity of our cows is low and we have made very little effort to increase that capacity. We have failed to provide the advisory service that would impress upon farmers the importance of good quality pastures, the importance of producing such pastures, of profitably grazing them and of conserving them, the importance of providing large quantities of high quality bulk feeding for the winter periods. We have done something to improve the milk producing quality of our cows through AI but not half enough is being done in progeny testing of bulls. Coupled with the AI service we should have a veterinary service because there are very considerable annual losses through cows failing to hold calf for the normal period.
This is very important since our cattle numbers are dropping so drastically. There has been a drop of 112,000 in our cattle population in the past year. This is a serious matter because we imported about £8,000,000 worth of animals in that year. It may fairly be said that the eradication of bovine tuberculosis has been responsible in some measure for the reduction in stocks but since this is in some way an artificial removal of cattle some artificial measure will have to be adopted in order to replace them. I am slow to suggest how it should be done but something in the nature of a grant will have to be provided for in-calf heifers if we are to get cattle stocks back to the desirable level. One of the main planks of the Programme for Economic Expansion was a big increase in cattle numbers. We have not achieved that. Since 1958 the number of cows has dropped by 18,000.
We have trouble also with the disposal of bacon and this when we have only 1,500,000 pigs in this country while Denmark, a country much smaller than ours, has 12,000,000 pigs. The Danes appear to have little difficulty in disposing of their bacon at a price very much in excess of what we are able to obtain, a price 44/- to 45/- a cwt. better than we can obtain. This, again, is due to a number of causes. It is due to the fact that the Danes have better breeding stocks, better feeding, better management, better curing and marketing processes.
The pig industry is all important to this country because of the small farm economy that exists here. We are all anxious to maintain the small or smallish farmers in this country and to give them a standard of living approaching the standards enjoyed by the other sections of our community. If we are to take pig production seriously we must realise that it is all important that we should import the best possible breeding stock wherever it may be obtainable. I understand that the best breeding stock available to us is in Sweden. One of the main difficulties with regard to carcase quality that we have here is the shoulder cut thickness. I believe that in Sweden the average is 37 millimetres. In Ireland it is 47 millimetres.
I fully realise that the importation of breeding stock is not the whole answer to our problem, but it is a quick way to get to the position that our competitors have arrived at in the years of testing. Five or six years ago, when Deputy Dillon was Minister for Agriculture, he provided the first progeny testing station for pigs and I understand that at that time the plans were well under way for a second one. We are still waiting for that station. I believe it is now being constructed but when it will be ready for use I do not know. We should now be well on our way towards providing a third station. The idea that a stock of 1,500,000 pigs is enough for this country is ridiculous.
Our pig housing is anything but what it should be and our feeding and management generally should be improved. This is all part of the work of an intensive advisory service but there is not much point in having such a service unless we have an outlet for our production. I have indicated some of our marketing difficulties but all the talk we have had about selling difficulties has led our farmers into the frame of mind in which they believe that any extra production will lead, as it has always led, to a reduction in price. The attitude of the Minister, as far as I know it, is that while costs of production are rising and continue to rise and while the cost of living is rising the price of the farmer's produce must be kept down; that under no circumstances must he be allowed an increase in the price of his produce.
Milk production has been seriously disturbed by this business of reducing the price by 1d. per gallon and then, when the fury of the dairy farmers was let loose, restoring that penny. In the liquid milk producing area, where there is no subsidy and no difficulty in selling, no price increase is permitted. It is something I fail to understand. The price of half a pint of stout is a shilling and the farmers are expected to put on the customer's door at 7 o'clock in the morning for seven days a week, twice that quantity of milk at half the price. If this is not unfair discrimination against the farming community I am not able to recognise it.
Since the last increase in the price of milk in the Dublin district, agricultural wages have increased by approximately £2 per week and rightly so; if we do not make an effort to approximate the wages of agricultural workers to those of other similar workers we shall have no agricultural workers. I mention that as one of the costs of productions which have increased considerably. In view of the fact that there is no subsidy I would ask the Minister to explain why he will not permit an increase in the price of milk in the Dublin district. It is an end product. It is unlike the produce in the dairying areas.
There is this aspect of it as well. The dairy farmers in County Dublin can perhaps increase production slightly due to the increasing demand from the city, but it is confined to that and any farmer who decides to produce milk in excess of that quantity has no outlet. He has no outlet even at surplus price and up to the present, at any rate, wholesalers have refused to allow new people to come into milk production at any price. That is a restriction on production but there are many restrictions on production.
The price of wheat has been reduced in the past. It has been reduced by the reduction in the quantity of wheat that will be accepted at the mills. It has been reduced by the inevitable effect of the introduction of more severe standards, especially the colour standard which will result inevitably in less wheat being taken for milling. It is hard to understand that attitude also because last year we imported over £6,000,000 worth of wheat. The Minister does not accept responsibility for standards. He says it is a matter for the mills. As far as I can see the millers are allowed to do what they like and treat the farmers as they like.
Barley has been pegged down to the price at which it has been for some years and there is little justification for this either. Last year we imported £1.7 million worth of maize and a considerable amount of other feeding stuffs and grain generally. It is difficult to see how this policy can be supported. In view of the size of our imports one would think that some little extra encouragement would be given to our farmers to produce barley. Barley can now be produced in almost every part of the country because of the introduction of the lime scheme and of high-yielding varieties of feeding barley.
In an effort to see what could be done in County Dublin to improve the income of the farmers our County Committee of Agriculture got the advisory officers to make a detailed survey of the position. We may not have a first class committee of agriculture but I would not like to describe its worthiness in the terms in which Deputy Moher described the Cork County Committee last evening. We tried to make a fair assessment of the position in County Dublin and I think we did it at the Minister's suggestion. He stated that county committees were carrying on in the way they had been carrying on for the past 40 years and it was time something was done about it. We set about doing something about it. We got this detailed survey and unfortunately we found that in almost all the traditional lines in County Dublin there was no room for further expansion because of the limitations of local markets. Wheat is produced pretty extensively. The attitude there is to reduce production. Pigs and milk were produced extensively. Milk is restricted because there is only a local market and the price is pegged down.
