Half of the farmers in attendance at a farm walk last week said that they have purchased and spread fertiliser on their land, with the other half having not purchased any.
The farm walk, organised by Teagasc as part of the sheep grass walk series on the farm of PJ Finnerty in Co. Roscommon, gave a glimpse of what is happening on the ground.
And what is happening, given the cost of inputs currently, is no surprise.
When the question was put to farmers at the walk by Teagasc advisor Sean Mannion of how many of them had purchased and applied fertiliser this year, roughly half said they had.
Sean followed up that question by asking the group how many had closed-up ground for silage, with only about a third of the group raising their hands.
The answer to not purchasing fertiliser is obvious, as is the reason for not having closed ground, with grass growth yet to really take off, particularly in the northwest of the country.
Bales of silage, if any are still lying in the yard or if any can be bought, are still being fed to stock.
To put into perspective the increase in fertiliser costs, a case study on PJ’s farm was shown to farmers in attendance.
Last year, PJ purchased 18.1t of fertiliser – with a list of what he purchased viewable in the picture below.
PJ’s fertiliser bill last year came to €6,800. This year, if PJ was to purchase the same amount of fertiliser as last year, it would cost him €19,700.
However, PJ has allocated a fertiliser budget of €10,000-12,000 for this year and compared to last year has increased the amount of urea and protected urea purchased and has bought less, and in cases no, compound fertiliser products.