How did 2025 ground conditions affect agri-contractors?
The excellent ground conditions of 2025 have resulted in lower fuel consumption rates and reduced wear and tear levels across all machinery types.
This welcome trend has been confirmed by John Hughes, national chairperson of the Association of Farm and Forestry Contractors in Ireland (FCI).
He said: “The use of contractors continues to grow right across Irish agriculture. And this is very noticeable within the tillage sector.
“In my own county of Kilkenny, the use of seed drills used by contractors has grown four-fold over recent years.
“And this trend looks set to continue.”
While most sectors of Irish agriculture continue to receive acceptable farm gate prices, the polar opposite is the case where tillage is concerned.
According to Hughes: “Tillage farmers are under considerable economic pressure at the pressure. And this may well impact on how quickly they pay contractors over the coming months."
Meanwhile, there is a fast-growing dearth of fully trained tractor drivers in Ireland, a challenge that the FCI chairperson is fully aware of.
He said: “We are looking a shortfall of around 400 operators at the present time.
"One way of addressing this issue in the short term would be to encourage fully trained tractor drivers from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to take up at least some of the positions that are available here in Ireland."
Hughes said that while "these people are highly qualified and they speak English", there is a lot of "complex paper work involved in bringing these people into Ireland".
“This is an issue that FCI would like the government to actively address," Hughes said.
“Bringing in drivers from other EU countries is the other option. But the problem here is the language barrier."
The other way of addressing the tractor driver challenge is to train up greater numbers of Irish people.
FCI managing director, Ann Gleeson Hanrahan, told Agriland that efforts in this area are underway.
She said: “We are currently working with the agricultural colleges and local enterprise offices to develop these training opportunities.
“We will be building on this for the future.”
Recent years have seen the FCI securing full registration status with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine as a lobbying body.
In addition, there has been the inclusion of farm and forestry contractors within the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS).
Gleeson Hanrahan said: “Our aim is to boost the membership of FCI. And this is already happening.
“Contracting services are at the very heart of Irish agriculture.”
