TEAGASC PUBLISHES TILLAGE PERFORMANCE DATA ON IRISH FARMS FOR 2018 According to Teagasc – Ireland’s agriculture and food development authority – cereal yields in 2018 were lower than in 2017 for all the major cereal crops. Yields for spring barley, decreased by 19%, while winter wheat yields also decreased by 19%. However, in addition to decreases in yields, cereal prices were


significantly higher in 2018 compared to 2017, with the price received at farm gate 38% higher for spring barley and 32% higher for winter wheat.


Straw receipts also increased significantly in 2018 compared to


2017. This resulted in an increase in output value for both spring barley and winter wheat by 16% and 17% respectively. Direct costs increased slightly for spring barley and winter wheat, with allocated fixed cost also increasing for both crops. Some of the increase in the fixed costs allocated to the spring


barley and winter wheat crops is associated with the method in which fixed costs are allocated across enterprises, with allocation based on a proportion of gross output across all enterprises. Given that output values associated with these cereal enterprises increased in 2018 relative to 2017, the allocation of whole-farm fixed costs also increased for the aforementioned crops. Given the change in output value and direct and fixed costs, the


net margin on spring barley farms in 2018 was €216 per hectare, and the net margin for the winter wheat crop increased by €178 per hectare to €627 per hectare in 2018, relative to 2017 (excluding Basic Payment figures). The Teagasc figures confirm that total costs of production per


hectare are more varied in the spring barley sample than the winter wheat sample, with a 16% cost differential on spring barley farms (per hectare). Gross output per hectare for the top half of spring barley farms was 27% higher than the bottom half. Overall, this results in a €703 per hectare difference in net margin per hectare between the bottom- and top-performing spring barley farms. In 2018, 26% of spring barley farms and 2% of winter wheat farms


produced a negative net margin (i.e. made a loss when allocated overhead costs were deducted from gross margins). At the opposite end of the distribution, 10% of spring barley farms and 29% of winter wheat farms earned a net margin of €750 or more in 2018. The sectoral factsheet information is drawn from the Teagasc


National Farm Survey, which collects data from 898 farms – representative of almost 93,000 farms nationally. “In broad terms, the 2018 factsheets show a reduction in margins for


dairy, beef and lamb enterprises, largely related to elevated spending on feed, silage-making and the purchase of forage,” said Dr Kevin Hanrahan, Head of the Teagasc rural economy development programme. “The difficult weather conditions encountered in 2018 led to lower technical performance on grassland farms.”


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IN MY OPINION … RICHARD HALLERON Tillage must remain at the very heart of good farming practice in Ireland It’s that time of the year when combines take over as the tour-de-force within the Irish countryside. This year’s harvest takes place at a time of considerable uncertainty for farming and food across the board. However, let’s forget about Brexit for a moment and focus on the bane of every tillage farmer’s life: the weather. Tillage is, in many ways, the forgotten sector of Irish agriculture.


But now and then the industry pokes its head above the parapet by recording the highest cereal yields across Europe. For the most part, this is because Irish grain crops rarely suffer from moisture stress throughout their growth stages. But just think of how good Irish crop yields could be – year-in, year- out – if cereal growers were guaranteed a decent harvest window. The science pertaining to the actual growing of high-yielding,


combinable crops under Irish conditions has been well worked through at this stage. The big imponderable remains that of successfully harvesting crops in what can be very challenging weather and ground conditions. I know that research work in Scotland has looked at the feasibility


of growing cereals in raised beds. Under such circumstances, the crop would grow in soil that is physically above groundwater levels in even the wettest of years. Another tillage research priority is that of improving straw quality.


Dairy and other livestock farmers are now keen to include straw in the winter rations they feed their stock. One assumes that the higher the feeding quality of the straw, the more money they will be prepared to pay for it. There has been a lot of negativity expressed regarding the tillage’s


future prospects in Ireland lately. However, the future could be very different. Tillage has a lot to offer Irish agriculture as a whole. Let’s just hope that the early autumn of 2019 delivers the harvest conditions that growers need to end their year on a genuine high.


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Alltech.com/ireland AlltechNaturally @Alltech Sarney | Summerhill Road | Dunboyne | Co. Meath FEED COMPOUNDER SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 PAGE 31


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