Tillage farmers’ risk management skills will be thoroughly tested in 2023.
According to Teagasc, driving this reality is a combination of high input costs and uncertainty as to how strong grain will be next harvest.
Teagasc’s Shay Phean addressed these matters during a recent Tillage Edge podcast.
He said that farmers should not have all their eggs in one basket, adding: “This is the first port of call when it comes to reducing risk. Growers can never be reliant on one single crop.
“Another way of minimising risk is for growers to look at the option of forward selling. Generally, prices are lowest at harvest time. The fact that such was not the case in 2022 can be put down as an anomaly.
“More often than not, if you look at the trends, September tends to be the time when grain prices are at their lowest,” he explained.
“People will say that forward selling is a risky business. But the reality is that not selling is equally risky.
“But forward selling gives the grower some certainty that a profit can be made. And this means the business is not losing money.”
Tillage farmers should soil test
According to Phelan, tillage farmers should soil test regularly and then act on the back of the results received as part of their risk management plan.
So, e.g., fields that are inherently high in phosphate (P) and potash (K) can be managed on the basis of them not requiring as much fertiliser as would normally be applied.
“Growers should inspect their current winter crops over the coming weeks,” Phelan said.
“A lot of crops are not as good as we would like them to be. There may well be bare patches in many of them. In such circumstances, farmers are left with one of two fundamental decisions – do they stick with them or is it a case of re-sowing?
“Fundamentally, we need every crop to meet its optimal yield potential, moving forward, particularly given the prospects for grain prices over the coming months.”
Turning to the new nitrates rules, Teagasc’s Ciaran Collins explained that there are a number of issues that tillage farmers will have to keep an eye on as 2023 beckons.
“Looking to the spring months, the absence of an up-to-date soil test report will assume an index four for P. So this is a major change – previously an index three for P would have been assumed,” Collins said.
“The need for soil testing to be carried out in these circumstances is obvious. And this should be pushed out across the farm.
“The fertiliser database is expected early in the new year. Changes have also been made to the width of buffer zones that are adjacent to watercourses. These will increase from 2m to 3m,” he explained.
“However, in the case of later-sown crops such as maize, beans and potatoes, this figure increases to 6m.”