A survey of over 3,000 farmers – conducted by AgriLand – found that just over 30% of farmers don’t have enough fodder to reach the end of this week.

Supplies of fodder have continued to tighten in recent weeks and livestock farmers across the country are facing significant shortages.

Launching the poll on Tuesday evening (April 3), a total of 3,260 responses were recorded by the following morning.

It revealed that 15% of respondents had no fodder at all, while 16% of farmers had less than one week’s worth of supplies left.

Meanwhile, 27% of farmers who responded to the survey indicated that they have fodder supplies which will be sufficient for between one and two weeks.

A total of 24% of farmers noted that their supplies will last for up to three weeks, while just 19% of respondents said that they have enough fodder to keep them going for one month or more.

‘Demand will deepen in 3 weeks’

This morning, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed conceded that the extent of fodder shortage is likely to worsen over the next three weeks.

Responding to questions on the gravity of the “fodder crisis” on RTE Radio 1 show Morning Ireland, the minister said that if the current difficult weather conditions continue “it’s likely that in three weeks’ time we would have additional demand for fodder”.

“The estimate in my department last week was that we had in the region of three weeks’ fodder available.

If we didn’t get an increase in soil temperature now; it’s likely that in three weeks’ time we would have additional demand for fodder.

“What we are looking at now, based on soil temperature and grass growth, we are at about a third of grass growth now in comparison to what we were at this time last year.”