asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries the extent of the latest increase in the price of milk substitute for calves; and the reason for this increase.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Milk Substitute Price.
6.
I understand that the recent increase in the price of milk substitutes is in the range of £10 to £20 a ton depending on the fat content of the particular product. This increase is due largely to the fact that manufacturers of milk substitutes are, since 1st September last, required to use butter fat instead of animal fat or vegetable oil which they had previously used.
Can the Minister say if there was a directive from the Department to increase the content of milk fat in milk substitute for calves? Is the Minister not aware that increases such as this, which amount to approximately 16? per cent, more than negatived any increases that farmers derived from the production of milk?
As far as the first part of the Deputy's supplementary is concerned, it was on the direct intervention of the Department that it is now required, since 1969, that only butter fat may be used in milk replacers as against the animal fats and vegetable oils heretofore used. With regard to an increase beyond any benefit that might additionally have accrued as a result of the recent Budget, I would not subscribe to this at all. Rather is it a case of using that which we have—butter fat in abundance—for the purpose for which it is at least suited, that is, for the feeding of calves and in milk replacer. I think this is the place for it rather than scrounging around the world to find other substitutes to bring in here while, at the same time, we export butter fat at giveaway prices.