I had to laugh when someone showed me a tweet from the Irish Whiskey Association last week. I’m not a fan of social media, but I indulged.

The association said it wanted to “acknowledge all the Irish tillage farmers and maltsters who supply over 100,000t of Irish malt and grain to our industry every year”.

This was a week after growers learned of a €12.50/t energy charge when they were delivering barley with record low moisture contents, needing little drying.

Many were also being told that the barley they delivered would receive the feed price, despite being tipped in a malting heap.

Were they thanking growers for reducing their costs or are they just completely out of touch?