Tom Barry: Wet weather means I can't get valuable slurry out on to my crops
Tom Barry in a field of wheat on his farm at Monanimy, Killavullen, Mallow, Co Cork. Picture Dan Linehan
Tillage farming in 2024 is proving challenging on all fronts. Firstly, the weather has been very broken and with few opportunities to get crops set. The weather also is making driving conditions through winter cereals difficult.Â
The second item in the back of every tillage farmer's mind is the poor cereal prices and low demand for Irish grain at present. The coming harvest prices are not encouraging. Finally the high costs of inputs such as seed, fertiliser and diesel are a worrying factor given grain price is low. This, coupled with high land leasing costs driven inadvertently by the nitrates regulations, is threatening the whole viability of the tillage sector.
