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Irish water has assured farmers that in the event that their own supplies are inadequate, that they will be facilitated to collect water, free of charge, from another scheme not under as much pressure.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Sean Laffety, head of asset management with Irish Water, said that the company held meetings with farming groups and had agreed protocols to protect animal welfare.
Joe Healy, also speaking on the programme, said that animal welfare was of paramount importance.
He emphasised that as well as water, feed supplies were under pressure: “All anyone has to do is look at the pitches from the weekend, look at the lawns. We need those lawns to grow … many farmers are now feeding their winter forage.”
Tillage challenges
Bobby Millar, chair of the Irish Grain Growers Association, and Ciaran Collins, crop specialist with Teagasc, highlighted the challenges currently faced by the tillage industry.
Millar said: “This week, I’m doing something I never thought I would be as I’ll be cutting winter barley. It’s two to three weeks earlier than normal. I have been out walking my spring crop every two days and it is starting to disappear.”
Collins advised farmers to try and work together to salvage as much value as possible from crops. “There are opportunities to sell crops for whole crop feed or to graze them in situ to make up feed deficits,” he said.
“It’s a stressful time on farms. Spring was a non-event. At Oakpark we only had 18mm of rain in May and 4mm in June. Spring barley on light land has stopped growing”
He added that most crops had received all their inputs at this point but where some fungicide applications remain to be made that they should be tailored to match yield expectations.
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