It has been a great harvest, up to this point in time. The weather has held up and most cereal crops yielded very well.
But behind the scenes, more than significant costs have been incurred by growers through no fault of their own?
The one down side, from an overall performance point of view, was the impact of Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus (BYDV) on some early sown winter crops.
However, while growers were in their fields, combining away, the world’s grain markets were conspiring against them.
Within hours of Russia agreeing a deal, brokered by Turkey, to allow the reopening of Odesa and other Ukrainian Black Sea ports, the global prices of cereal took a fair old hit.
Analysts refer to this trend as market sympathy. But, call it what you want, it will certainly take a fair bit off the margins that Ireland’s cereal growers record in 2022.
The only guys left with genuine smiles on their faces were those who forward sold grain from this year’s harvest earlier in the spring.
Forward selling the harvest
To give Teagasc credit, many of that organisation’s tillage specialists had been profiling the benefits of selling grain forward many weeks ago.
However, Irish Grain Growers’ Group (IGGG) chairman, Bobby Miller, subsequently told Agriland that the genuine opportunities for Irish tillage farmers to sell crop on a forward basis are very thin on the ground.
One thing that we now know, as a result of recent developments, is the fundamental fact that grain markets are totally international in nature. They can also change tone in pretty sharp order.
So it makes sense that Irish grain farmers should have straightforward access to forward selling opportunities, if for no other reason than to provide a form of insurance policy for their businesses.
Forward selling platform
So as the long autumn and winter nights beckon, it behoves the government, the feed compounders, the farming organisations and Teagasc to come up with a bespoke forward trading platform that meets the needs of Irish grain growers.
But the scheme itself only represents 50% of the final solution. Local grain growers also need access to the training opportunities that will allow them hone their skills, when it comes to making best use of futures’ markets and actually selling ahead.
And let’s hope there will be plenty of top quality Irish grain to sell over the coming year.
Thanks to the Tillage Incentive Scheme, the area dedicated to crop production in Ireland grew by 6% this year.
This is still some 30% or more behind where we were a generation ago.
The potential to expand Ireland’s cereal output is significant. It’s the job of agriculture minister Charlie McConalogue and his advisors to ensure that the expansion of the tillage area witnessed in 2022 is built upon for the future.