The mood among farmers is at a low ebb at the moment. Farmers are running low on feed, storage, energy and optimism.

Fertiliser sales over the last five months are miles back on normal, a clear indication that both cashflow and confidence are way behind where they should be at this time of the year.

A fair cohort of farmers are usually up and about early in the year buying value.

The fertiliser register could be a factor slowing farmers down; there may be opening stocks on hand.

The large number of farmers now required to complete a nutrient management plan may also be contributing.

In particular, farmers may be hanging back on which straights to buy until they know their phosphorus limits having met their planner.

But the main factors are weather-related. Turnout is behind schedule on most farms, grass utilisation is far from optimal on even the driest land.

Most of the apparent growth took place last autumn, with the bad autumn necessitating early housing and unused grass. And, now, as growth belatedly occurs as ground temperatures slowly rise, it’s still difficult to get into fields with either stock or slurry tankers.

A lot of silage ground will soon be too advanced to take slurry prior to closing.

Farmers may decide to take an early cut and get in with slurry in early to mid-May.

And slurry is a massive concern all over the country.

Tanks are full to bursting, and farmers are aware that apart from the need to be responsible, which most farmers feel deeply, they are being watched like never before. It’s an added pressure.

Winter planting is way behind, spring work is way behind, prices are unexciting and falling

For the tillage sector, the scars of last year have not faded. There’s no one like farmers to get back into the saddle, but the bad autumn and slow spring mean it’s deja-vu all over again since the nightmare 2023 season ended.

Winter planting is way behind, spring work is way behind, prices are unexciting and falling.

Talking to some tillage farmers, they have determined that they won’t throw good money after bad. If land remains unplanted much past mid-April, they will pull the plug and not plant.

Late start

Too many things can go wrong when spring crops have such a late start.

Unless it’s very warm, allowing fast emergence from good seedbeds, we may see cover crops or fallow ground, almost unthinkable in Ireland since the days of mandatory setaside.

We look to the skies, and hope for the best. But it needs to come pretty fast.

Perhaps March came in like a lion, and will go out like a lamb.