There was an excellent turnout of farmers from North Mayo and the surrounding area for the recent Agri Trading Open Days, hosted by Archers of Ballina. The events were supported by Co Offaly-based feed compounder J Grennan & Sons.
Padraig Farrell, Head of the Agri Trading Department at Archers , confirmed that winter is far from over in the Ballina area.
“This part of the country took the full brunt of the storms in January and February,” he explained.
“A lot of the farmland in the Moy Valley is still flooded. Most stock are still indoors with the exception of ewes with newborn lambs.”
Padraig continued:
“The lambing season will be getting into full swing in this region over the coming weeks. From what I can gather suckler cows will be calving slightly later this year. However, that will not be a bad thing, as there is little or no grass available for stock at the present time.
“Demand for compound nuts and blends remains extremely high and this was reflected in the strong sales of sheep, beef and dairy rations throughout the two Agri
Trading Open days. We were offering two 25 kilos bags free with every 10 bags of Grennan’s feed purchased during the Friday and Saturday of the event. And I am delighted to confirm that a high proportion of our customers availed of this very attractive offer.”
Grennan’s Agri advisor Damien Conboy told AgriLand that getting fertiliser spread should be a priority for farmers over the coming weeks.
“Hopefully the weather will pick up over the next couple of weeks,” he explained.
“There is little or no grass on farms in the North West at the present time. Cows and ewes with caves and lambs. They will need an early bite and the only way to guarantee this is to get fertiliser on to grazing areas as soon as possible, weather permitting.
Damian’s colleague Francis Mitchell confirmed that compounds represent good value for money at the present time.
“Prices are well down on this time last year,” he commented.
“However, the ongoing crisis involving Russia and the Ukraine puts a big question mark over the availability of competitively prices cereals over the coming months.”