This article is from page 59 of the 2008-08-26 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 59 JPG
CLARE farmers have been urged to get moving in order to take advan- tage of the fifth Milk Quota Trading Scheme, with applications needing to reach the department by October 31. The new Scheme, which was an- nounced last week by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Brendan Smith, will be the first of two Trading Schemes to allocate quota in respect of the 2009/2010 milk quota year.
Clare TD and Minister for State at the Department of Agriculture, Tony Killeen last week urged Clare farm- ers to take advantage of the scheme.
The Scheme will again be run in respect of each Co-op area, and will
be comprised of a priority pool and a market exchange. Sellers will con- tinue to contribute 30 per cent of the total quota offered for sale to the pri- Ou IAYA eee
The individual bid limit for buyers will remain at 80,000 litres, and the method for calculating the market- clearing price, including the 40 per cent price corridor, will remain un- changed.
The 3:2 ratio on the distribution of priority pool quota between young farmers and category | producers will be retained, as will the option for sellers in certain Co-op areas to sell at one or two cent per litre less than their original offer price.
“The main changes arise in the administration of the priority pool.
The maximum price at which quota is traded in the priority pool will be reduced to 10 cent per litre, unless the exchange price for that Co-op area drops below 10 cent, in which case the priority pool price will be the same as the exchange price,’ he said.
“In addition, participants in Milk Production Partnerships, whether new entrants or long-standing milk producers, will have access to quo- ta in their own right as individuals, whether on the basis that they are under 35 years of age or that their existing quota is less than 350,000 litres. Farm Managers participating in partnerships with established milk producers will have access to quota on the same basis.”
Meanwhile, it was confirmed last week that Clare’s REPS farmers un- able to spread slurry on their land due to the recent inclement weather conditions have been given a Six- week extension of the REPS slurry- spreading deadline.
According to Minister Killeen the measure applies to farmers in REPS 2 and REPS 3 who are required to have spread all the slurry produced during the winter housing period by 31 August.
“The atrocious weather conditions, particularly in County Clare and the Midwest Region, of the past two months have made it extremely dif- ficult for some local REPS farmers to get their slurry spread by the end of this month,” he said.