The Irish Grain Growers Group (IGGG) has called for support from co-ops, merchants, feed mills, and farmers, warning “if the tillage sector keeps dwindling away, the livestock sector will follow”.

In a statement, the group said that having attended the meeting with the National Fodder and Food Security Committee (NFFSC) on Friday (August 21) “it’s clear that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marin Martin Heydon, farm organisations and advisory bodies, especially Teagasc, acknowledge that the tillage sector has a significant role in providing feed to livestock over the next six months”.

IGGG said: “We expect that this isn’t just a token gesture and tillage farmers get properly rewarded for what they produce.

“Yet again we are experiencing another fodder crisis, the latest  of a growing number of fodder crises over the last 10 years.”

Crises

The group said that tillage farmers have been seen as solutions to problems in the past, but “forgotten about within months of crises passing”.

It added: “In recent years, reliance on imports from across the world has become commonplace with detrimental consequences for our us tillage farmers.

“Twenty years ago saw the end of the sugar industry and the byproducts and surplus beet was always used to feed livestock over winter.”

The group said that it is calling on co-ops, merchants, farmers and especially feed mills to “support and financially reward tillage farmers through this difficult year similarly to the way livestock farmers are rewarded through feed rebates”.

It added that “if the tillage sector keeps dwindling away, the livestock sector will follow because the Irish agri industry will have little to distinguish itself from its competition”.

IGGG asked: “Should we examine our ‘grass fed’ marketing model and steer towards an Irish fed marketing model?”