In the wake of policy reforms such as the MTR of the CAP and WTO arrangements, many policy analysts are questioning the value of retaining the EU milk quota system in its current form and one policy reform option that has been discussed in advance of the 2008 Health Check of the CAP is the...

Quota trade in Ireland is ‘ring fenced’ to milk processors where farmers are not allowed to trade milk quota outside their designated milk processor. This ensures milk production staying within a region but has implications for the efficiency of milk production. In this paper, we simulated a...

Farming systems based on products of roughage feeders are a vital part of the EU agricultural production. Up to the CAP reform in 2003 the EU promoted these systems via a wide variety of measures. This paper highlights the different impacts European, national and regional support measures have...

The paper is a case study of how the Luxembourg Agreement of the Mid-Term Review of the Common Agricultural Policy may affect the structure of dairy and beef farming in the Republic of Ireland over the period 2002 to 2012. It describes the process used to assess some structural implications of a...

This paper assesses the impact of the 'decoupling' reform of the Common Agricultural Policy on the labour allocation decisions of Irish farmers. The agricultural household decision-making model provides the conceptual and theoretical framework to examine the interaction between government...

Among the prominent recognized features of the industrialization of animal production over the past half century are growth in the stock of inflexible, or use-dedicated, capital as an input in production and growth in productivity. Less recognized is a trend toward aseasonal production. We...

This paper examines intergenerational succession on Irish dairy farms. The factors that influence the decision to enter dairying farming are examined using a binary choice logit model. Reasons that are frequently published in the popular farming press as being an obstacle to intergenerational...

This paper examines the relationship between calving date and production costs on Irish dairy farms from 2000-2007. Using data from the National Farm Survey, the median calving dates of 400 dairy farms are studied each year using econometric analysis to determine the relationship between calving...