The farm organisations are set on a collision course with the Government over its handling of the EU Nitrates Directive which will limit the use of fertiliser on Irish land and force farmers to store organic fertiliser for long periods in winter on their farms.
The draft version of the Nitrates Directive Action Programme, to be submitted by Government to the EU next month, has not challenged the fertiliser levels specified by the EU, according to the Irish Farmers' Association president, Mr John Dillon.
He estimated that thousands of Irish dairy farmers would be forced to reduce the number of cattle they farmed if the EU levels were applied, and that the farming community would have to spend €1 billion in storage facilities which were unnecessary.
"The latest version of Action Programme seen by IFA illustrates the Government's passive and detached approach to defending the key competitive advantage Irish farmers have in our extensive grass-based livestock production systems by confirming a 170 kilogram per hectare organic nitrogen limit," said Mr Dillon.
"This will force our best and most competitive farmers into a stocking level requirement of 1.25 acres to each dairy cow. This is well above the threshold of one dairy cow to an acre of land, which is accepted as the scientific optimum threshold for competitive farming under Irish conditions."
He accused the Government of breaching its partnership commitments where it had agreed to seek a higher limit of 250kg of nitrogen per hectare.
The president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, Mr Pat O'Rourke, said he would have no option but to advise his national executive to pull out of the partnership agreement over the handling of the issue.