Delayed spring costs farmers €140m

The delayed spring is causing severe hardship on farmers as animal collectors and feed mills report a sharp rise in demand due to the prolonged cold weather.

“The knackery has never been as busy. We’re dealing with 30 cows a day and up to 50 sheep, when usually at this time we’d be getting about 15 cows,” one Meath knackery operator told the Irish Farmers Journal.

“There was a backlog after the snow, and we’ve started seeing a lot of thinner cattle coming in.”

Another knackery operator in Galway said the calls had been coming in “hot and heavy” since the Beast from the East, while in Carlow a collector warned that farmers hadn’t seen the last of the hardship.

“We’re in for another cold snap around Easter and I’d say next week is going to test a lot of people in terms of fodder.”

Saturated land and non-existent grass growth have placed significant pressure on housing, with grass growth stalled at 5.5kg/day, compared to the normal March average of 23kg/day.

Farmers are relying on supplementing with meal to stretch fodder supplies as contractors ask for between €20 and €30/bale for silage.

The Government’s fodder scheme has had just nine applications, with ongoing complaints around its complexity, and dairy, sheep and suckler farmers are facing a combined feed bill of at least €140m for an additional three weeks of housing.

One feed mill in Roscommon stated that “trying to keep up with demand” in the last three weeks was a challenge.

“We’ve seen an increase of up to 15% for feed,” John Grennan of Grennan’s Feeds said.

“Everyone seems to be in the same boat at the moment. People are looking at the back end of silage pits, with almost no growth coming on in the fields.

“I can never remember a year where almost nothing was sown on St Patrick’s Day.”

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Spring worsens as Beast from the East returns

Under 10 fodder scheme applications submitted