One third of farmers who took part in a snap Agriland survey over a 24-hour period have said they are now running short of fodder.
At least 33% of farmers who took part in the survey will at some stage have to purchase fodder.
The swift all-island survey was open to respondents for a 24-hour period until 4:00p.m yesterday (Wednesday, January 10) and attracted 2,356 responses in total.
We asked our audience three simple questions in the survey:
- Are you running short on fodder?
- Will you have to purchase more fodder?
- What county are you from?
769 farmers said they are running short on fodder, while 1,560 said have sufficient supplies. Meanwhile, 769 farmers indicated that they would need to buy-in fodder, while 1,587 respondents said they would not.
Feedback from farmers who participated in the survey shows that many are now facing a critical shortage of fodder on their farms which has forced some of them to buy-in more silage.
This option is costly, with some farmers stating that the prices are too high, and some are considering the possibility of selling off some of their livestock earlier than planned.
Nearly 770 farmers who took part in the survey said they would have to purchase additional fodder supplies.
Quality of fodder – silage
Farmers who have bought or who are currently looking for silage indicated in the survey that are very concerned about the quality of silage for sale and also the price being asked.
Some farmers highlighted how difficult it was to get bales – with prices averaging up to €40, and said that they “need support to buy them”.
“It’s hard being a small farmer,” said one respondent to the Agriland survey, while others said they had already purchased bales but they were “poor quality”.
“It is very expensive, is there any hope the government would subsidise the price?” was just one of the comments in the survey.
“I am buying round bales of hay for €50 delivered,” one farmer also stated.
Farmers in the south-west of the country including Kerry, Cork, Clare and Limerick who indicated that they were running short of fodder told Agriland that the reason for their fodder shortage was because:
- Cattle were housed early;
- There had been adverse weather conditions, including flooding;
- There were poor second-cut yields.
In the midlands, farmers who indicated that they will have to purchase additional fodder said weather conditions were a key factor behind this, while some also warned that they would have to sell cattle because silage prices were currently unaffordable for them.
TB breakdown
Meanwhile across the south-east of the country, farmers also said poor weather conditions were to blame for a shortage of fodder and for some, their problems had been exacerbated because of a tuberculosis (TB) breakdown in their herd.
Many in the region also had to “house cows too early”, which put further pressure on fodder stocks.
Across the country, many farmers who took part in the survey said they were now having to stretch their silage supplies with “soya hulls or barley”, some had also introduced magnum fodder beet, which they said “saved a lot on silage and was cheaper”.
Shortage of fodder in other regions
In the north-east, the results of the Agriland Fodder Survey showed that poor weather had also played a key role for farmers who need to purchase additional fodder at this stage and that the second cut failed to deliver for many.
Feedback also pointed to the impact of a TB breakdown which had left them “overstocked” and over reliant on their own fodder supplies.
One farmer told Agriland that his feed was “going fast” as they had been forced “to use bale reserve last August due to bad weather”.
Overall they estimated that they “will be short about six weeks of fodder going forward”.
In the north-west of the country flooding was one of the major reasons why some farmers are now battling a fodder shortage.
In the survey, one farmer told Agriland that they “had to put cattle in sheds five weeks early because grazing ground was flooded”.
This farmer said that a further prolonged spell of wet weather would result in cattle “being in sheds longer than usual”.
“I will have to sell most of the stores by end of January or buy silage which is in short supply around here,” the farmer said.
Farmers also said they had lost livestock in the floods and had been unable to cut silage because of the very wet conditions.
Others who said they previously had “never ran out” also warned that their silage stocks were running low and “would be gone by mid-March”.
Demand for straw
One key trend that was highlighted in the Agriland snap survey is that straw is in big demand throughout the country and that many farmers have a major problem finding good supplies.
“Sourcing straw is a major problem” was a repeated complaint voiced by farmers in many parts of the country.
Many farmers said they blamed the Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM) for the apparent shortage of straw in many areas.
The SIM is a scheme under Ireland’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Strategic Plan 2023-2027, which pays tillage farmers for chopping straw and incorporating it into the soil.
In the Agriland Fodder Survey some farmers called for the SIM to be “scrapped”.
“Getting straw for bedding is a problem,” one farmer said, while another stated: “We have no straw at the moment – it’s a worry”.
The majority of farmers who took part in the survey also said there was one key element that they are hoping for in 2024 – “an early spring”.