Over a year ago Ireland's dairy industry was in crisis. Yesterday, at the Moorepark 2007 National Dairy Open Day in Co Cork, the speculation was that the creameries would be unable to process the surge in milk supplies flowing from a bright new future.
World demand for dairy products has soared. Driven by China, a drought in Australia, New Zealand's inability to increase production and the rejection by US consumers of hormone-produced milk, Ireland is back in the dairy driving seat again.
Over 10,000 farmers came to the Teagasc research facility, a remarkable turn-out considering that estimates suggest there are now only 20,000 commercial dairy farmers in the State.
They came to hear about the latest technologies and research which would put, and keep, them ahead of the rest of the world in dairying, which has had five very rocky years due to a downturn in world demand, higher costs and fewer EU supports, which drove thousands of producers out of what used to be known as "white gold" production.
Yesterday, Teagasc produced a survey on Farmers' Attitudes and Intentions which showed that almost 50 per cent of those surveyed planned to increase milk production in the next five years, while only 14 per cent planned to exit the industry.
An even greater sign of confidence was that over 70 per cent wanted to see the milk quota regime come to an end before 2010. For many years dairy farmers wanted exactly the opposite and regarded the quota, which limits what they can produce, as essential to survival.
Farmers were told of research which showed that there was a potential on most dairy farms to increase milk production by an astonishing 40 per cent in the coming years, most of which could be done without any great cost.
Research carried out at Moorepark showed that commercial farms could produce 15,000 litres of milk per hectare with minimal supplementary feeding while cow numbers on the farms surveyed could be increased without additional investment or labour.
Prof Liam Donnelly, Teagasc's head of food research, said that increased milk production would bring its own problems, as the processing capacity was currently just about adequate to deal with peak milk flow and there was no further scope to increase output where that added to the peak.
"Without further investment in processing plant, increased milk output can only occur by spreading the milk production curve. That is now the most urgent issue facing the industry in planning for a post-quota environment, since it impacts directly on the ambitions of producers to upscale," he said.
Already the Government has put a €115 million dairy processing investment fund in place to address what Prof Donnelly said was an urgent need to provide facilities in view of the fact that Ireland's true milk production potential will quickly exceed the capacity of existing plant.
However, there was a warning for the processors from the president of the Irish Farmers Association, Padraig Walshe, who said that too many people were living "off the backs" of dairy farmers.
He said that for every two farmers the processors employed one person, paying an average wage twice what a dairy farmer earned even before distributors and supermarkets had taken their margins.
Mr Walshe proposed a 3 per cent increase in the Irish milk quota, starting in 2008. He also proposed a dedicated graduate programme for dairy farm managers and new entrants to meet the demand for skilled personnel in the future.