Tillage farmers are racing against time to harvest crops during the current weather window, the National Fodder and Food Security Committee (NFFSC) has heard.
Michael Hennessy, head of crops knowledge transfer at Teagasc, told a meeting of the committee today (Wednesday, July 19) of the severe pressure facing farmers following the heavy rain of recent weeks.
“In terms of the weather in July, certainly it’s been the wettest on record I think in many places, so it’s really causing havoc out there,” he said.
Tillage
Teagasc is predicting that the overall production of cereals across the country this year will drop by 16% to just over two million tonnes.
This is down from the harvest of 2.4 million tonnes last year, which was slightly above average.
“To be really honest, every other day that goes by it’s not exactly helping the situation given crops are being beaten into the ground for the most part,” Hennessy said.
The total cereal area is expected to contract by around 6% in 2023 which will be reflected in the overall tonnages and lower yields, he said.
Teagasc is currently forecasting that the spring barley will be back by 9% or almost 81,000t this year to 813,000t.
Spring wheat production is expected to drop by 38% and winter barley may be back by 24%.
However, Hennessy noted that the tricky part is actually getting the crops harvested.
Half of the winter barley harvest is done in some areas, but in the northeast just 30-35% has been brought in.
Of the crops that have been harvested, only around 20% of the straw has been baled, the majority is still too wet and requires up to three days to dry out.
Given the current difficult conditions, Hennessy said that a lot of tillage farmers may be regretting not putting more straw into the Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM).
The meeting heard that winter barley yields will be “extremely variable” this year and could range from 3-11t.
Only 10-15% of winter oats have been harvested, but yields and quality to date, appear to have withstood the poor weather conditions.
Heavy rain has “shoved” some early sown spring barley crops towards the ground which will make harvesting slow and difficult, Hennessy said.
Weather
The meeting heard that there is currently no sign of any huge change in the weather over the coming weeks.
“It’s either constant rain or it’s showers, so it’s not wonderful all the way until the first week in August,” Hennessy said.
He said that the coming days will provide a brief “weather window” for tillage farmers to “make decent progress”, but wet conditions are set to return this weekend.
“Looking at the next three days with some of these really ripe crops that are basically breaking down day on day, harvesting will have to be done with higher moistures which obviously is a lower value product going into a trailer,” Hennessy added.
“The higher moisture you get there’s a chance you’re not going to get it across the specs for some of the premium crops.
“But I think at this stage, especially for winter barley, it really is a salvage job on some farms, it needs to be done,” he said.
“It’s a pretty desperate situation on lots of farms. There’s a huge amount of work in front of people with a really, really short window.
“So, the tillage farmers and contractors will be working extremely hard in the next three days in the small weather window that we have,” he said.
Bobby Miller, chair of the Irish Grain Growers’ Group (IGGG) said that tillage farmers feel they are being “hit from every direction” this year.
Along with the weather and lower grain prices, tillage farmers are battling against very high input costs for fertiliser, pesticides, machinery and fuel.
He called for the cultivation rules for nitrates for tillage farmers to be scrapped this year, given the current weather conditions.
He also believes the current tillage area will decrease due to pressure from dairy farmers for land in order to comply with changes to nitrates regulations.