The decision taken to set aside one quarter of the 1% quota increase in order to encourage new entrants in to dairying has, I believe, met its original objective of encouraging enthusiastic and determined young farmers into the industry. Over the five years of the New Entrants Scheme, milk quota has been allocated to 410 successful applicants, This includes 15 quotas which have been reallocated in subsequent years because the original successful applicant was unable to commence his operation.
To date 289 of those applicants have commenced dairying and it is expected that the remaining 121 applicants to whom milk quota was allocated will have either commenced operations, or will have the cows in place ready to commence, by the required date of 1 January 2015. Any quota not taken up at that time will be withdrawn and put into the National Reserve for use on the final day of the Milk Quota regime on 31 March 2015
This New Entrants to Dairying Scheme, has succeeded in bringing enthusiastic and well motivated farmers into to the dairy sector from a diverse range of farming enterprises, and is acting as a significant primer for the industry as it embarks on the road to reach the ambitious target it set for itself in the Food Harvest 2020 Report of increasing milk production by 50% by 2020.
