A survey carried out by the Irish Grain Growers’ Group (IGGG), which took in 100 participants, has shown that 77% of tillage farmers have not completed spring planting. As of April 27, 13% of farmers had none of their spring crops sown.
The small poll was conducted by the IGGG to get an idea of the situation for farmers across the country. It gives an indication as to how tillage farmers are progressing with their work and how they feel about recent actions at a political level for the sector.
The graph above shows that 13% of farmers had no crops planted as of April 27, while just over 22% had all spring crops planted
Tillage area reducing
The survey also revealed that 31% of tillage farmers have reduced the acreage of land that they have devoted to arable farming in 2018. 50% of farmers have also altered cropping plans.
Just over 31% of farmers have reduced the area sown to tillage in 2018
Dissatisfied with government
Almost 69% of the 100 farmers who took the survey stated that they were either “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with the response to the late spring cropping by government, lobby groups, advisory bodies and other relevant parties.
Not enough promotion of Irish grain
In addition, a staggering 97 of the 100 farmers did not think that enough is being done to promote the use of Irish grain.