22


East Cork


The President of ICM-


SA has said that the signif- icant increases in farmers ordering ration and feed from merchants must be interpreted as signal that we are likely to face fodder and feed issues throughout the remainder of the years and into Spring 2019. Pat McCormack said that while it did no-one any good to overly dwell on the negatives, it would be “very remiss” of the Gov- ernment and stakeholders not to move immediately towards preparing a re- sponse to an upcoming pe- riod that would, he feared,


info@eastcorkjournal.ie Agriculture


present a nearly unpar- alleled


challenge to


state’s multi-billion farm- ing and food sector across several fronts.


Specifically dealing


with reports from feed merchants noting sharply upward unseasonal orders from farmers, Mr Mc- Cormack said that they coincided with his associ- ation’s own analysis: “we already know that


the


been a second cut for the obvious reason that there hasn’t been rain and even if


the weather tions became condi- optimum


for growing grass it’s very probable that unless we have a long wet and warm Autumn we’re looking at a second year of fodder pressure. I don’t want to be alarmist and I’m incredi- bly conscious of the stress that


farmers and their right


across the country farm- ers have already fed their stock the first cut silage that they were able to get in in May. There hasn’t


families are already under, but we have to face reali- ty and what I want to say is that we shouldn’t have to face this reality alone. We desperately need the


WINTER GRAIN YIELDS VARIABLE THIS HARVEST


IFA Grain Chairman


Mark Browne has said that initial reports from Harvest ‘18 would suggest that yields are very varia- ble across crops of winter barley.


These factors have re-


sulted in a hardening of spot and future prices in the wheat and barley mar- kets while there has been a serious scramble for straw due to the empty sheds across the country.


variation between regions. The


“There is significant drought


conditions


and warm temperatures have


certainly had an


impact, with the harvest underway two weeks ear- lier than normal. Winter barley crops are virtually finished down south, with some still remaining to be cut up the country.”


Mark Browne said the situation is similar across


Europe with variability being the key word. There have been severe drought conditions across north western Europe and Po- land, while severe thun- der and hail storms have caused serious crop loss in south west France.


After five years of low


grain prices, the IFA lead- er urged tillage farmers to demand a viable return for their product and warned merchants against any attempts


to undermine


the market. He also ad- vised growers to consider all options available such as whole crop in order to maximise returns from their business.


Mark Browne cautioned that while Winter


crops


look reasonable, the sit- uation with Spring crops is totally different and he highlighted


the potential


crisis in waiting. “At best, yields are predicted to be


Thursday, 26th


July 2018


info@eastcorkjournal.ie Deadline Monday at noon


Local farmer nerves “jangling” on Fodder & ‘No Deal’ Brexit


Government to begin im- mediately to prepare for what looks inevitable and that will mean a real and meaningful


and ICMSA is saying that we have to plan according to the reality now.”


‘roundtable’


that brings everyone to- gether – officials, farmers, processors, beef factories and feed merchants – and works through the ways by which we can help the farmers who are the basis for our whole multi-billion Euro agri sector. We have to proceed on the basis that there’s going to be a major problem;


if there


isn’t and the weather turns prefect then that’s great. But we can’t rely on that


The ICMSA President said that the ‘Nightmare Scenario’ had a fodder shortage rolling into next Spring and the Brexit crisis unresolved leaving the UK ‘crashing out’ in a way that threatened our traditional British markets.


“I said recently that


farmers felt that the Irish Government’s concen- tration had been on the ‘North-South Political’ at the expense of the ‘West-


East Economic’, that we had been


blocking the


focussed on reintroduc-


tion of a hard border and maybe had ignored


the


post-Brexit trade scenar- ios. ICMSA understands why the Government felt it had to stand absolutely with the EU but nerves are starting to really jangle in our farming and agri- food sectors, Ireland is the most exposed economy in the EU to a ‘No Deal’ situation and within that, farming and agri-food is the most exposed sector. The amendments the UK Government


was forced to accept days ago will


likely prove unacceptable to the EU negotiators and the prospect of the UK crashing out next March – a once unthinkable pros- pect – is now becoming distinctly possible. Every- where farmers look we see real difficulties and what I’m saying now is that it’s time to really engage with them and start coming for- ward with positive options. We have answers to these problems but the Govern- ment must grasp how crit- ical this could get – indeed how critical it already is”, said Mr McCormack.


only average due to the wet cold spring and subse- quent drought conditions, while it would appear that grain and straw volume will be poor particularly along the east and south east coasts.”


The IFA Grain Chair- man said tillage


farming


has become a vulnerable sector and urgent political action is needed at local and EU level to protect it. He said an increased dependence on expensive feed


ingredient imports


of variable quality is not an option as has been demonstrated


this spring


and summer as it threat- ens the viability of the livestock sector. “For many tillage farmers, the Basic Payment represents 100% of income, so it is critically important


that increased


funding is secured for the CAP budget so that cuts over recent years can be reversed.”


New Structure for Teagasc Pig Development Department


The Teagasc Pig Devel- opment Department


has


been recently restructured to better face the challeng- es ahead for the sector over the next 5 years. Teagasc has appointed researcher Edgar Garcia Manzanilla, as Head of the Pig Devel- opment Department and Ciaran Carroll as Head of Knowledge Transfer in the same department. Edgar Garcia Manza-


nilla qualified as a veter- inarian and obtained his PhD in Animal and Food Science at the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain. He went on to receive a professional Masters in veterinary pre- ventive medicine in the University of California, Davis in 2009 and he ob- tained his Diploma from


Tel: 021 463 8000 • Email: info@eastcorkjournal.ie • Web: www.eastcorkjournal.ie


the European College of Porcine Health Manage- ment in 2010. Originally from Barcelona,


Edgar


started his career as tech- nical director at the Mono- gastric Animal Nutrition Service (UAB) in 2005. From there, he joined University of California, Davis, as a postdoctoral re- searcher in pig and poultry nutrition for 3 years. He then returned to Barcelo- na in 2010 and joined Tea- gasc in 2014 as a research officer in the Pig Develop- ment Department. Speaking on his ap- pointment, Edgar Garcia Manzanilla said: “The Pig Development Department has made very signifi- cant progress in the last 5 years with Ciaran Carroll as head of both Research


and Knowledge Trans-


fer and Education. The research programme has doubled, our field research has multiplied and we now have a state-of-the-art pig research facility in Moore- park, Fermoy. In KT and education, we have a wider range of courses for people that seek a career in pig production. We offer more services to farmers and our


ination


information activities


different


dissem- include


newsletters, a presence in social media, several year- ly events and attendance at


international


groups. All these activities have already translated into improvements in the performance of the Irish pig sector as shown in the National Pig Herd Report. The evolution to a new


eastcorkjournal


structure in the Teagasc Pig Development Depart- ment will continue


the


trajectory of progress and will allow the development of new research areas and new services in a more effi- cient manner.” Congratulating


Edgar


on his appointment, Frank O Mara, Director of Re- search in Teagasc said: “Teagasc are committed to delivering on the Teagasc Pig Research, Advisory, Education and Training 2016-2020


Programme


Strategy entailing a 6 cent reduction in feed costs per kg dead weight. Through the Joint Programme the Teagasc Pig Development Department will continue to fulfil this objective.”


@eastcorkjournal / #eastcorkjournal


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