€100/hectare silage payment for beef and sheep
Silage-making in Ballycastle, Co Antrim. Picture: Steve Allen / iStock
Beef and sheep farmers will be paid up to €1,000 each to support silage-making increased costs.
The €55 million scheme will pay livestock farmers, with the exception of dairy farmers, €100/hectare for all silage cut up to 10 hectares.
Estimates suggest the cost of silage is likely to rise by up to 30% this year as international sanctions against Russia and the war in Ukraine cause inputs like diesel, oil and parts to increase. Meanwhile, there are fears less grain will be available as fertiliser price spikes cause farmers to be more sparing in spreading it this spring.
It means those keeping livestock will have to plan ahead to ensure they have enough fodder to get them through the winter.
However, the actual impact of the scheme could be limited as a week into May most farmers will already have planned their first-cut.
The understands there are no stipulations for how the silage must be produced - farmers will not be required to carry out a minimum number of cuts on the ground or achieve any baseline level of quality.
Irish Farmers Association president Tim Cullinan said the support scheme was a "step forward" but added that "much more" was needed.
Mr Cullinan said it was important that the Minister for Agriculture had come forward with a scheme to support farmers, but more will be needed to cover the massive increase in costs of production.
“Skyrocketing input costs are putting huge pressure on farmers and we are already behind time in encouraging farmers to maximise grass growth,” he said.
“The Minister must move quickly to announce the details and get the scheme up and running. The way input costs are going, more support will be needed.
"There are real food security concerns emerging from global agencies and it’s important that Irish farmers are helped and supported to produce food,” he said.
However, Pat McCormack, president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, said the exclusion of dairy farmers from the fodder scheme was “both revealing and disgraceful”.
"The ridiculous element of the decision lies in an outcome that would now see billionaire individuals with a hobby interest in farming receiving €1,000 of state funding to help with their fodder bills, while full-time farmers milking cows with proportionate inputs costs will be given nothing," Mr McCormack said.
The ICMSA President said that he thought that the Government had made a strategic error in so overtly displaying their animosity towards the dairy sector and basing a decision on a survey.
Bobby Miller, chairman of the Irish Grain Growers' Association, said tillage farmers felt they had been "left out in the cold" by the recent spate of announcements for ruminant sectors, despite the sector's costs also rising.
Mr Miller said: "Financial packages are being made available to all livestock sectors to help secure fodder going forward. The pig sector is also receiving much-needed government support. However, tillage farmers that specialise in crop production only, that have no grassland, have yet to receive any worthwhile support in what is a very high-cost year.
"The importance of these growers in providing fully traceable food and feed has received increased recognition of late, however, they find themselves understandably disappointed why nothing of substance has been formulated yet.
"The general view is that increasing the Irish tillage area will reduce food miles, reduce our national Greenhouse Gas emmisions, help Irish food security yet those specialist tillage growers find themselves left out in the cold up to now."
