Tillage farmers being dealt ‘blow after blow’

Tillage farmers are being dealt “blow after blow” as Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue’s suspension of the straw chopping scheme compounds almost two years of weather struggles for the sector.

Tillage farmer Danny Doyle from Co Kildare, who was the Teagasc/FBD Student of the Year 2023, made the comments on an Irish Farmers Journal podcast special, The Last Straw.

“It feels like it’s blow after blow. It’s a mixture of disappointment and there’s definitely a lot of anger out there, particularly in our local area; the local growers’ group there’s some real, real anger," he said.

“It feels like we’re not being heard year after year. Particularly in the last two years when things have been a lot tougher; where we really do need a bit of extra support, a bit of even moral support.

“It just doesn’t seem to be there whatsoever and this really comes as a low blow,” he said.

Plans

Similar to other tillage farmers, Doyle said management decisions around the Straw Incorporation Measure were made “well in advance”.

He started harvesting on Friday 12 July and chopped straw on the same day.

“The plans were made well in advance. The particular farm we started cutting, last Friday, the plans were made. That got chicken litter and we knew that the ground needed a bit of rejuvenation, so we put it under the scheme.

“We cut it there on Friday [last], we chopped it straight away. Ironically, my little brother was out there when the announcement was made. He was discing the field in. So that came as a shock to say the least,” he said.

‘Double whammy’

Doyle added that having straw chopped and no scheme is “almost a double whammy”.

“That’s 31ac we made under the scheme, which it looks like we mightn’t get paid for. Fair enough, had we have known a couple of weeks earlier, we could have put the rows of straw out and baled it.

“We probably would have gotten 10 bales/ac out of that farm. It’s almost a double whammy there on the loss,” he said.

The remainer of ground Doyle had in the scheme was oilseed rape.

“If we were told about that two or three weeks in advance that would make absolutely no difference. We’re not going to bale up oilseed rape,” he added.

The full podcast can be listened to here.