Unsown tillage areas could pay you better next year
Growers should look not only at each cropped field but also within fields, to ensure that all areas planted return a positive gross margin that will not eat into the Single Farm Payment.
“If wet spots, dry banks, compacted areas of the field are holding back yield, don’t plant them”, growers are advised, because sown and unsown areas are treated as being farmed in Single Farm Payment rules.
Farmers are also advised that the old definition for land eligible for tillage (ploughed between 1987 and 1991) no longer applies. Farmers can plough any grassland, allowing better rotations.
With regard to stacking of entitlements, there are few disadvantages, according to Teagasc’s latest tillage advice bulletin. The major requirement is that all stacked entitlements must be farmed for five years, which might be of concern if retirement or sale or lease of the farm is a possibility within the next couple of years.
