The Irish Grain Growers Group (IGGG) has issued a Christmas message, which puts Irish oats at the very centre of what is a very humorous and heart warming yuletide greeting to all Irish children and their parents.

Courtesy of a hotline to the North Pole, IGGG has been told that all children around the world will have their Christmas wishes come true - no one is on the naughty list in 2025.

But this means Santa’s sleigh will be packed to overflowing as it makes its way around the world on Christmas Eve night, putting more pressure than ever on Rudolph and his reindeer friends when it comes to sticking to Father Christmas’ strict deadlines.

But there is a solution. And it comes in the form of Irish children leaving out a bowl of Irish oats for Rudolph, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen.

But it’s got to be Irish oats; the perfect pick-me-up for reindeer on their all-important mission to visit every child in the world before they wake up on Christmas Day.

For the record, IGGG’s Bobby Miller looks really well, dressed in a very fetching Christmas jumper and Santa hat, delivering his piece to camera.

And it really is very thoughtful. But, of course, there is a more strategic message for Irish tillage farmers within all of this.

And it’s this - oats were the Cinderella crop of the Irish tillage year that was 2025. Prices crashed post-harvest, leaving growers with stores full of oats that they have not yet found a market for.

The reality is that oats are high-value crops, which can be used in equal measure for both human consumption and within animal diets.

The fact that we have arrived at the current impasse reflects a lack of strategic communication at all levels within the tillage and milling sectors.

And, surely, this is one lesson that can be learnt from 2025 - there is no point growing a crop if there is no market for it.

Tillage 2026

Meanwhile, the New Year beckons and the spring planting season will soon be upon us.

One of the key decisions that tillage farmers will have to make is centred on that all-important issue of which crops to grow.

And numerous questions remain unanswered. E.g., what are the prospects for malting barley in 2026? Are spring beans the solution to the spring planting conundrum? Or will we see a further growth in the forage maize area over the coming months?

Yes, it’s the job of grain growers to grow the crops. But there is an imperative on all the other stakeholders within the crop production and milling sector to come forward with guidance on those crops that will deliver the best returns.