Dairygold confirms minimum price of €250 per tonne for 2024 beans
Dairygold uses its purchased beans as a direct replacement for imported protein.
Dairygold has confirmed a minimum contract price of €250 per tonne for the 2024 protein bean crop.
Liam Leahy, Dairygold's beef and tillage manager, said that beans are an "important ingredient" in Dairygold's feeds, "supplying a rich source of valuable native protein and starch".
"Our minimum contract price for protein beans for the 2024 season is a commitment to encouraging the harvesting of this valuable native crop for the season ahead," Mr Leahy said.
This pricing commitment from Dairygold "offers welcomed security to growers who want to make informed commercial decisions early in the season".
Dairygold uses its purchased beans as a direct replacement for imported protein.
According to Dairygold, in 2023, it took in its highest quantity of beans ever.
The minimum contract price was announced at Dairygold's annual tillage conference for 2024 held in Fermoy, Co Cork, on Friday.
The theme of this year's conference was 'building resilience into your tillage business'.
For tillage farmers, building resilience into their business is key to achieving long-term success, according to Liam O'Flaherty, general manager at Dairygold Agri Business.
"The experience of 2023 with challenging weather, a difficult harvest, and tightening margins has confirmed that the sector is resilient and will always adapt and succeed," Mr O'Flaherty has said.
"It has also highlighted the importance of looking at every aspect of tillage enterprises to ensure resilience and sustainability - both environmental and financial are always key areas of focus.
"Our tillage growers are a key part of our overall business and Ireland’s tillage industry continues to support hundreds of farming families across the country and make a significant contribution to national GDP.
"We need to ensure that we continue to have a thriving tillage sector into the future."
In December, payments totalling €8.5 million commenced issuing under the 2023 Protein Aid Scheme.
The Protein Aid scheme supports tillage farmers to establish nitrogen-fixing crops, which are of environmental benefit.
The scheme was introduced to provide support for the growing of protein crops to counteract the dependence on imported protein for use in animal feeds.
This scheme proved "extremely popular" with tillage farmers in 2023, according to Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue, seeing a 50% increase in the total hectares sown to protein crops over previous years.
"The payment provided under this scheme is an important support for tillage farmers for the growing of protein crops, including beans, peas, lupins and the protein cereal mix crop," Mr McConalogue said.
"In recognition of these benefits, funding under the Protein Aid Scheme was more than doubled in the current CAP Strategic Plan to provide an increased budget of €35m over the lifetime of the plan."
The rate for 2023 was set at €583 per hectare for beans, peas, lupins and soya, with a half-rate payment of €291.50 per hectare for the protein cereal mix.
