Farmers up and down the country have been encouraged to save fodder at every possible opportunity by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed.

He was speaking at the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association’s (ICSA’s) 25th anniversary dinner celebrations in Kilkenny tonight (Friday, September 7).

The minister outlined that his department is doing as much as it possibly can, working with all of the stakeholders in the industry, in order to help farmers through this difficult period.

He said: “The message I would like to encourage is that all farmers – at every available opportunity between now and the end of the year, even if they feel they have sufficient fodder for themselves – need to maximise every opportunity to save fodder in every and any part of the country.

Though we have import initiatives, tillage initiatives and opportunities to extend the growing season with the extension to the application deadlines for chemical and organic fertilisers, it may well be the case that some of the areas that are most challenged will remain significantly challenged.

The minister also outlined that he was informed earlier today that one of the first loads of imported fodder arrived in through Dairygold in Cork today.

However, he noted that fodder imports will only be part of the overall solution to this year’s fodder shortage issues.

“Imports will be a part of it and we will support those, as we have announced. But really the solution to this is in maximising the opportunity to conserve fodder between now and the end of the year.

I’d like to encourage everybody – from Malin to Mizen and all points in between – to try and exercise this where it is opportune, appropriate and available.

“Because it may not be for yourself, but it may be of assistance to somebody else in the country,” he concluded.