The chair of the National Fodder and Food Security Committee (NFFSC) has urged farmers to shop around for the best fertiliser price.
Mike Magan said that this is a crucial time of the year for fertiliser use on farms.
“I know people will have very tight margins this year. Some farmers will struggle this year but they will struggle more if they go out to market to buy expensive feed in the back end.”
“I’m not telling anybody to buy expensive fertiliser. Get out there and shop around and buy it as cheaply as you possibly can,” he said.
The dairy farmer from Co. Longford said that it was up to industry to provide fertiliser to farmers at the minimum margin that they can work with.
Fertiliser
A meeting of the NFFSC today (Thursday, April 13) in Teagasc Oak Park, Co. Carlow heard that there are currently adequate stocks of fertiliser in the country.
This is despite a decrease in the level of imports into the country.
Sheila Nolan from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) said that 560,000t of fertiliser was brought into the country in January, compared to 680,000t during the same month in 2022.
More recent data is awaited by the department from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Nolan said that once the new National Fertiliser Database is operational this information will be more readily available.
Importers told the meeting that logistics and the lead-in time for getting fertiliser into the country is the problem and not availability. They said that farmers are buying supplies as they need them.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue asked the committee, which last met in October 2022, to reconvene due to concerns about fertiliser price and use, along with difficult weather conditions in recent weeks.
Fertiliser applications have reduced by 25-30% in 2023, compared to the previous four years.
The meeting heard that the use of nitrogen (N) fertiliser fell by 14% last year, potassium (K) was down by 26% and phosphorus (P) was back 24%. The impact of this reduction on overall soil fertility is yet to be determined.
Grass growth for the year to date stands at 910kg dry matter (DM)/ha which is down by 25%, due to low growth rates in February, Teagasc said.
Supplementation levels remain high on some farms where stock has been housed due to adverse grazing conditions. Silage stock were reported to be “very tight” on some farms.
Stan Lalor, director of Knowledge Transfer in Teagasc, said that rebuilding fodder stocks on farms must be prioritised.
Farmers
Farming organisations said that farmers are angry with merchants, co-ops and importers and are holding back on buying fertiliser.
They said that farmers are not prepared to be “stung” again with high prices.
Work will be needed to rebuild the relationship and trust between farmers and industry, the committee was told.
Director of Teagasc, Dr. Frank O’Mara said that “the next two weeks are critical”.
“The cost benefit from applying fertiliser now is so good compared to buying feed in the winter. I’d be encouraging farmers to go out there and spread.
“That’s a message then that puts the responsibility back on the trade to facilitate that and give farmers confidence to come and actually buy and that they’re not going to find that it’s €100-€200/t cheaper again in three weeks’ time.
“That’s the kind of confidence that people need to feel,” he said.