Roy Gallie, chairman of the Irish Farmers’ Association pig committee, said that pig farmers “are on the road to bankruptcy”.

If 25 acres of silage are cut three times, this will be 750 tonnes of fresh weight silage

Due to increased global production of biofuels, there is a greater supply of associated protein-rich by-products such as distillers dried grains available for use as animal feed.

The EU animal feed industry has reacted violently to a European Commission proposal for nationalisation of GM crop imports for food and feed use.