It would be very easy for a farm organisation, such as the Irish Grain Growers’ Group (IGGG), to expect the government to lead the response when it comes to sorting out the challenges currently facing their industry.
But, instead, according to IGGG chair, Bobby Miller, the issues now confronting Ireland’s tillage must be addressed across agriculture as a whole.
Of course, the Irish government must also play a key part, but Miller is advocating an approach that would see every stakeholder around the table actively working together.
Let’s hope that such a balanced approach from the IGGG pays a genuine dividend for all cereal producers during the period ahead.
In the meantime, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, is taking a serious amount of time in delivering his response to the Final Report of the Food Vision 2030 Tillage Group.
It was published back in April and a fair amount of dust can settle on any publication within a period of four months.
We are now in the thick of the summer holidays and soon it will be September, at which time the build up to 2025 will be in full swing.
This leaves open the distinct possibility that government’s official response to the Food Vision 2030 Tillage Group will be merged with the cut and thrust of the budgetary measures announced for 2025.
If this is the case, it will represent a retrograde step for the tillage sector. The Food Vision report was always going to be about the medium to long-term prospects of the tillage industry.
Statements from the finance minister on Budget day are not the vehicle to allow the strategic requirements of a specific sector to be addressed in a comprehensive manner.
Before that, of course, it will be decision time for cereal growers with regard to the new Baling Assisted Payment (BAP).
To bale or chop: this is the question.
No doubt, all these maters will be addressed over the coming weeks. In the here and now, however, the priority for tillage farmers is to complete the 2024 harvest.
Growers’ challenges
Heavy rains impacted on large swathes of the country over recent days. This will hold up the combining of crops in many areas for up to a week. This is assuming that an immediate return to drier conditions is achieved.
Let’s hope this is the case. The last thing that cereal growers need now is a prolonged period of wet or changeable weather.
Winter wheat crops will be ready for the combine in about a fortnight’s time and, after that, it will be case of getting on with the spring cereal harvest without delay.
The coming weeks will be critically important for all Irish tillage farmers.