Grass growth collapse hits farmers for €360m

Drystock losses running at an average of €3,200 per farm and harvest worries mount

THE COLLAPSE in grass growth has cost dairy and drystock farmers close to €360m over the last six months, while the continuing heatwave is causing havoc for vegetable and cereal growers.

Figures from the Teagasc PastureBase service put the fall-off in grass growth for the first six months of the year at almost 1.5 tonnes per hectare.

This has cost dairy farmers €250/ ha or around €100/cow, according to Teagasc calculations.

With more than 1.4 million cows in the national dairy herd, losses as a whole exceed €140m.

Losses on drystock farms are estimated at €108/ha, or €3,200 for the average 30ha farm.

With around 70,000 beef and sheep farms nationally, this converts to an overall loss of around €220m.

And with no respite from the scorching weather forecast over the coming week, tillage farmers are also facing serious difficulties. Potato growers are struggling to keep crops irrigated and are warning of massive yield losses on fields that are not getting water.

The cereals harvest is also badly affected, with some tillage advisors predicting that yields will fall by 0.75-1t/ac on average or by 500,000 t to 700,000 t in total.

This would represent a loss of €90m-120m to the sector.

Although crops of winter barley have yielded up to 4 t/ac in the south, poor grain fill has seen yields dip as low as 2.5-2.7 t/ac in some instances.

Crops in south Tipperary yielded 3.6-3.7 t/ac at around 14-15pc moisture, and 60-64kph, while winter barley yields in Wexford have ranged from 3.5 t/ac to 4.0 t/ac.

However, there is mounting concern for spring cereals, with latesown crops on dry soils under severe drought stress at this stage.

The yield potential of spring crops has already been severely hit, and could be back by as much as 50pc. Tipperary-based farm consultant PJ Phelan predicted that overall yields in the cereal harvest will be back by as much as a tonne to the acre.

“I would have put the drop in yield at 0.5 t/ac last week but the figure is now creeping up and could hit 1t/ac unless we get rain,” Mr Phelan said.

Concentrate feeds

With grass growth rates having fallen to between 10kg/ha/day and 20kg/ ha/day, feed mills are flat out trying to keep concentrate feeds and coarse rations pumped out.

Lakeland Dairies stated that compound feed sales were running 25pc ahead of last year on a week-to-week basis.

Merchants in the southern half of the country are under even more pressure, with one miller claiming that current output was more like the month of November than July, and was running 30-40pc ahead of normal.

Mills in the Border counties are currently supplying their hard-pressed counterparts in Leinster and Munster, such is the level of concentrate feed demand on livestock farms

In addition, a spokesman for Dairy Industry Ireland confirmed that it has sought a derogation from the current tachograph regulations, which limit the number of hours a truck driver can spend behind the wheel, in order to meet the unprecedented level of feed demand on farms.

George Ramsbottom of Teagasc said dairy farmers were generally feeding between 4kg and 6kg of concentrates per cow per day depending on grass covers.

He said that where grass is very tight the shortfall in roughage is being made up by coarse rations, such as palm kernel or soya hulls.

Tillage farmers report an increased level of enquiries from livestock farmers for straw. However, the bulk of the straw has been bought forward.

One dairy farmer in south Wexford said that he had contacted a number of growers but all of them had sold their straw pre-harvest. Straw is reported to be making €20/bale for 4x4 bales.

With many farmers already feeding first-cut silage or grazing second-cut crops, the threat of reduced winter feed has prompted increased offloading of dairy cows.

Department of Agriculture figures up to the end of June show that cow disposals are running 20pc ahead of last year at over 9,000hd per week.

Prices have also taken a serious hit, with quotes for P-grade cows back 40c/ kg during June, falling from 350c/kg to 310c/kg. This equates to €100/hd.

Meanwhile, the increased usage of concentrates has added to the demand for water among dairy herds. Teagasc estimates that water consumption per cow for herds on high levels of concentrates tops 100 litres per day.

While some concerns have been raised around wells running dry, there have been no reports of this being a major problem to date.