Working jointly is the future
Tuesday March 17 2009
Almost all transfers of farms in Ireland take place by way of inheritance, a seminar on encouraging young people into farming was told.
A Dunmore East-based accountant said the only way of getting new blood into the sector was to open it up through collaborative opportunities.
Jonathan Tighe from Tuam, Co Galway, but now milking 300 cows in Co Waterford, said in order to achieve this, a joint venture culture would first have to be encouraged.
Mr Tighe, speaking at the Lismullin Centre in Co Meath, said the advantages of getting involved in a joint venture were that it combined skills and resources and required lower capital while offering higher returns and a higher scale.
He said it also incorporated group dynamics and two heads were always better than one.
"New Zealand is a classic example of a joint venture culture," Mr Tighe said. "One of the reasons why it collaborates so much is that there are low capital taxes and simple regulations.
"They have good government and one farmers' union, so they speak with one voice, too."
Mr Tighe maintains that almost 50pc of dairy farms in New Zealand worked under a shared milking system. He said the conacre and family partnerships and milking partnerships were the most usual types of joint venture in Ireland.
Increase
"These are on the increase, which is a good sign, but we've still a lot further to go," he said.
The Co Galway man says that cultural attitudes can often prohibit the creation of a joint venture culture. He said attitudes such as 'I can't lease the land, it might get run down' or 'small farms should be protected at all costs' were common.
However, he encouraged young farmers to dream and explore all possibilities.
He advised that family collaborations should be treated as any other.
An audience member outlined why joint ventures hadn't taken off here: "The problem we have is the attachment that Irish people have to the land. An Irish farmer would buy a residential property and lease it out to anyone, but they won't let anyone on their land," he said.
- Majella O'Sullivan
