Green Pages Feed Trade Topics from the Island of Ireland


CO-ORDINATED APPROACH IS REQUIRED FOR THE GrAIN SEctor — IrISh FArmErS’ ASSocIAtIoN Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) Grain chairman, Mark Browne, believes Ireland’s tillage sector is in serious decline and a co-ordinated approach is required by all stakeholders in order to stabilise the sector. According to the most recent figures from the Central Statistics


Office, the area planted to the main cereal crops since 2008 has reduced by 67,500ha, which represents a drop of over 20%. “This stark reality confirms that tillage must be considered as a


vulnerable sector in Irish agriculture,” adds Browne. “The arable sector is of major strategic importance to the broader agricultural industry as it underpins Ireland’s livestock, dairy, drinks and mushroom sectors, and the €12.6 billion in exports.” Browne says the sector faces many challenges, with the most


immediate being the importation of grains from non-EU countries, which are undermining Irish grain producers and Ireland’s food branding image. These third-country imports are produced under standards which are not equivalent to the sustainability standards of Irish grain production. In relation to the Common Agricultural Policy, the Grain Committee


chairman emphasised that tillage farmers had been disproportionately affected by the current regime due to downward convergence and greening issues. Any continuation of these policies in CAP 2020 would only contribute to the further decline of the arable area in the country. Browne concluded by stressing that the tillage sector had many


positive aspects for the economy and particularly in relation to Ireland’s food provenance credentials. It can also play a vital role regarding Ireland achieving its climate change, biodiversity and water quality targets.


COPING WITH THE PROTEIN CHALLENGE IN DAIRY DIETS Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) Farm and Rural Affairs’ committee chairman Dennis Drennan believes that all Irish feed millers should declare the protein digestible in the intestine (PDI) content of the dairy rations they manufacture. “Climate Change is challenging us. But we can do certain things


that help the environment and save us money,” wrote Drennan in the organisation’s summer 2019 newsletter. “One such change is to review the amount of protein we feed our cows. We all strive to produce high protein milk.” “But ironically feeding cows a high protein diet will have little impact on the overall protein content of the milk,” he added. “Traditionally we measure the protein needs of a cow by using a


measure called ‘crude protein’. A cow producing 25 litres of milk with 4% fat needs approximately 2.6kg of crude protein per day.” “The main constituents of a cow’s diet are grass and meal. The


protein content of grass can vary from 16% – 28% and can drop as low as 12% under drought conditions. This means that a cow eating 16kgDM


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of grass will consume anywhere between 2.56kg and 4.45kg of protein from grass per day.” “Therefore, the daily protein requirement of the cow can be met by


grass alone. However, many of us feed concentrates on top of this.” “At a rate of 2kg of concentrate, a cow can consume an additional


280g of crude protein. In total, a cow on this diet is fed excess protein on a daily basis.” Drennan points out that excess protein is shed as urea in urine or


milk. The milk urea nitrogen (MUN) figure is indicative of the amount of urea in milk. The text messages from milk processors on milk collection data sometimes contain this figure. “A figure above 40 indicates excess protein in the diet,” he continued.


“The urea shed in the urine of cattle converts to ammonia, which is a harmful greenhouse gas. It is also detrimental to our water bodies as it causes acidification and eutrophication.” “The agricultural sector in Ireland is responsible for 99% of the total


ammonia emissions for the state. Therefore, minimising the amount of urea lost to the environment is important if we are to farm sustainably and reduce our ammonia emissions.” “At industry level, ICMSA wants all millers and merchants to provide


more accurate data on the feed they are selling. A better measure of protein in a feed is to look at its PDI figure. However, this is not widely available. Additionally, the PDI of grass should be made available so that we can use it to more accurately estimate the protein content of grass. This would help us make better decisions for our cows, our environment and our pockets.”


WEATHER ROCKS IRISH FARM INCOMES IN 2018 The extent of the financial impact of adverse weather in 2018 on Irish farm incomes is evident from recently released data from the Teagasc National Farm Survey. Across the board in 2018, farmers struggled to cope with the difficulties presented by severe weather and challenging conditions on farms. A long winter, followed by an extremely dry summer, seriously


affected grass growth in 2018. As a result, on grassland farms (dairy and drystock), there was a substantial increase in the volume of purchased feed and fodder required to make up for the shortfall in grass production, with average feed expenditure up by 34%. The need to increase fodder stocks resulted in increased spending on fertiliser, machinery contracting and fuel. The combination of these factors pushed production costs strongly upwards. The extent to which weather had an impact on individual farm


incomes in 2018 depended on factors specific to each farm, including local weather, farm type, soil type, stocking rate and the mix of winter and spring crops sown. Good late-season grass growth and an extended silage making campaign helped to avert even steeper increases in production costs late in the year and stemmed the erosion


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