Farming
Prices still remain poor but ‘good week’ will gather the crops
THIS week’s spell of good weather should ‘clean up’ the remaining 2,000 acres of corn to be cut on Galway farms this harvest, according to IFA grain representatives.
The poor summer and low sunshine amounts meant that some crops weren’t fit for harvesting during the window of good weather that presented itself in early September.
John Daly, Galway IFA Grain Committee Chairman, told the Farming Tribune that this week’s good weather was very welcome news for many grain farmers.
“Some crops were that bit later in ripening this year so we estimate that up to last weekend about 20% of the crops in Galway or 2,000 acres still remained to be cut,” said John Daly.
Price though still continues to be the big bugbear for grain farmers with barley at 20% moisture coming in at €141/€142 per tonne.
World surpluses in grain have led to depressed global markets while in Europe, France has an estimated 41 million tonnes of grain held in storage that they want to offload.
“Over the past two to three years, we have a situation whereby the best grain growers can hope for in Ireland is a break-even situation.
“The real worry is that there is only so long that this position can be sustained. While the yields have been very solid this year [c. 3 tonnes per acre], the prices have remained poor again,” said John Daly.
Nationally the IFA have been negotiating with the merchants to try and agree some level of price increase but there seems to be little room for manoeuvre given the world market situation. Despite the heavy rains of the weekend of September 10 to 14, the crops still remaining to be cut have stood up well to the conditions.
“While we got some heavy rain, we didn’t get the strong winds that could do an awful lot of damage. Price wise it’s been another bad year, but at least this week all the crops should be harvested,” said John Daly.
THE new ACRES (Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme) due to be rolled out on January 1 next is ‘restrictive and complicated’ according to West of Ireland farming representative.
IFA Rural Development Chairman, Michael Biggins, said that the proposed scheme was ‘far from a new REPS’ and urgently needed to be modified in terms of flexibility and budget allocation.
“As it’s currently proposed, ACRES is restrictive and complicated. It will inflict more compliance costs on farmers, resulting in less income.
“The scheme is designed to discourage people from farming. In order to achieve the average payment, farmers will have to commit more land to lower levels of production compared to previous schemes,” said Michael Biggins.
He added that all farmers who applied needed to be accepted into the scheme while those farmers applying in 2023 would have to be paid in the same year.
Details of the €1.5 billion ACRES scheme were outlined by the Dept. of Agriculture in June with two entry streams – a general or individual one: and a co-operation model for environmentally sensitive area including Connemara and parts of South Galway and Mayo.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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A RECENTLY opened Galway Rural Development (GRD) office in Mountbellew could be the forerunner to similar ‘Smart Villages’ initiatives over the coming years, according to the organisers of the scheme.
The Smart Villages initiative is part of the European Network for Rural Development, aimed at improving services in country areas such as health, social, energy, transport and retail.
The Mountbellew office was officially opened by Minister for Rural/Community Affairs Heather Humphreys, who said that the initiative marked an important step forward in terms of rural development.
CEO of Galway Rural Development, Steve Dolan, said that last year they had picked out Mountbellew as their pilot location for the Smart Villages project which would offer a lot of opportunities for rural communities mainly through the use of information and communications technology
“Smart Village training has been developed and delivered, up-skilling many in the community in local development, connectivity, sustainability, and more. The opening of this office in Mountbellew is as a result of our shared efforts,” said Steve Dolan.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
THE meat plants have been accused of trying ‘to make a fast buck’ on the backs of sheep farmers with lamb prices now back by a euro per kilo, as compared to just over a month ago.
Farm leaders have said that the factories are trying ‘to tough it out’ before more finished lambs begin to come on the market over the next month or so.
Galway IFA Chairman, Stephen Canavan, told the Farming Tribune that there was no good reason for the chain of factory price cuts over the past five weeks or so.
“All the information we are getting is that the supply of finished lambs is still quite limited but the factories have obviously taken a decision to cut now, before the number of finished lambs increase through the Autumn.
“It’s just another example of the meat plants trying to make a fast buck at the expense of the primary producer at a time when input costs for farmers have never been as high,” said Stephen Canavan.
Lamb prices are this week hovering at the €6.50 per kg mark – down from a high of over €7.50 per kg in late June, equating to a price drop for farmers of around €20 per lamb.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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