Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pulling my hair out listening to this debate. Do the witnesses not think there has been a complete lack of joined-up thinking when it has come to dealing with this issue? We are talking about cell count in a farm setting. One of the two things that have been mentioned is milk recording. What have we done with milk recording in recent years? We have put a VAT rate increase on it. We have a very low percentage of farmers who take up milk recording, something like 40%, and although we are trying to increase that figure, we have decided to put a tax on the practice. Where is the joined-up thinking in that scenario? Milk recording is valuable to all farms, not alone for calculating cell count but for production and calculating the amount of solids all the way through the process.

On the available equipment, we talk about dry cow and mastitis but nobody talks about things like cluster flush. If a person puts a cluster flush product into a milking parlour, it reduces the cell count at a dramatic rate because there is peracetic acid going through the unit every time before it goes to a cow. As a dairy farmer who went through a problem this spring in my milking parlour, and trust me, I had black hair a few months ago, it is the most stressful period of a person's life trying to control it, and I had a wonderful vet who went through the entire milking process with me one evening because I thought I was going mad. The lack of joined-up thinking in the entire Department in terms of what is required to reduce cell count is the most frustrating thing on the farmyard. We should reduce the VAT rate on milk recording. We should be talking about the peracetic acid and dipping cows so one cow does not transmit an infection to other cows. That is where the big business is for me regarding trying to control the cell count issue.

When it comes to the actual therapy required, the witnesses are right. It is important we have the ability to dry cow tubes and-or a cow depending on what cow has what issue. The only way to do that in many ways is to have milk recording, and we have gone the wrong way around that. In fact, we have gone the other way. If a person goes to a farm discussion group tomorrow morning, others at it will say their milk recording bill is going up and will ask if it is viable. Have we any concept of what is happening on the farm itself? Where is the joined-up thinking? Because of that, we are losing the argument at the farm gate. All the information packages in the world will not deliver it until we start talking about the infrastructure that is required. I personally believe things like dipping clusters from one unit to the other is the key. That is the ultimate. It has not been mentioned here yet today. If that is done, it actually reduces the cell count in the tank by up to 300,000 straight away, and I have experience of this. It can go from 500,000, when there is a serious problem, down to 120,000-130,000 in a matter of days because the infection is actually limited.

That is the kind of conversation we need to have. An awful lot of issues need to be thrashed out here. We are only seeing a part of the debate here today. I want to see a real campaign on milk recording, and the only way to do that is to do something about the price and to have a campaign on it. The infrastructure, what is required on a farmyard regarding the milking parlour system, is probably the most important thing of all. I thank the Chairman and apologise for my tone.