EU Politicians Call for More Dairy Help as SMP Intervention Reaches Limit

The EU must quickly take further measures to stabilise milk prices and bring relief to struggling dairy farmers, urged MEPs in Thursday's plenary debate with Commissioner Phil Hogan and Dutch deputy farm minister Hans Hoogeveen.

These measures should include an EU-wide lid on milk production to boost prices, a more efficient intervention system, to enable the EU to react more swiftly, and balancing the supply chain to enable farmers to earn fair returns, they said.

The debate came as the intervention scheme for skimmed milk powder (SMP) closed as it reached its volume limits of 218,000t this week.

Commissioner Phil Hogan stated the Commission intend to propose further increases in the SMP intervention ceiling to 350,000 tonnes. Fixed price intervention remains open for butter – click here to read more.

This week we also featured an article from Melanie Epp on the benefits of white clover in grass-based grazing systems, looking at some research from Michael Egan from Teagasc institute in Ireland.

His research revealed that dairy cows that graze on grass and white clover swards show increased milk production.

While the general perception has been that white clover is not suitable in intensive grass-based milk production systems, that perception is beginning to change, said Mr Egan.

White clover offers great potential. For one, he said, it may allow producers to reduce their use of chemical N fertiliser.

“In our experiment we have reduced nitrogen by 100 kg to 150 kg per hectare,” he said. “However, it depends on your system and the amount of cows you are carrying.” – Read more.