IRELAND'S 49,000 dairy farmers have again been warned that they face a £20 million bill for overproducing milk. At the end of November, milk deliveries exceeded the norm for that time by 2.34 per cent or 22 million gallons.
According to the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, who issued the warning, while there has been a significant drop in production, farmers were still facing "an extremely serious situation".
He warned farmers that if they continued to produce milk at the present rate, EU fines would be over £20 million, the highest ever.
Ireland is allowed to produce 1.1 billion gallons of milk annually under the EU milk quota system. If that is exceeded, farmers are fined £1.28p per gallon.
Mr Yates also said the average butterfat content of milk deliveries this year was causing concern. Irish producers are expected to keep butterfat levels in milk at 35.8 gm/kg. Exceeding this can also bring EU penalties.
The Minister said the estimated average butterfat content of milk deliveries was slightly over what was allowed.