‘The Department will have to bring in a feed voucher scheme this winter’
IT wasn’t only the Ploughing Championships that took a battering from Storm Ali last week.
When we spoke on Wednesday — the day the Ploughing was cancelled — Michael Guinan in nearby Rahan was counting the cost of the violent winds, which had flattened three of the 14 acres of maize he is using as a feed “buffer” for his herd of some 80 Montbéliardes.
“That’s farming for you,” Michael says ruefully. “I’ ll have to get the contractor in pronto style.”
Michael farms in partnership his wife Concepta at their 180-acre homeplace in Rahan near Tullamore, Co Offaly.
The herd produce for Lakeland Dairies at a current price of 32.78c/l, which Michael describes as “good, but could be better”.
He also sells his bullocks for the marts, where he says prices are unimpressive due mainly to the “fodder situation and the uncertainty around Brexit”.
One of the pebbles in Michael’s shoe is the trend of co-ops to offer fixed milk price schemes. The price offered this year was below the price on the day they made the offer and “sent out the signal that farmers would be happy to produce milk at a lower price”.
“The co-ops get a guaranteed margin on every litre of milk they sell, which is more than what the farmers get,” he points out.
“Something has to be done about the milk pricing system because the dairy farmer is the last person considered.” Michael has similar views on the Department of Agriculture’s well-intentioned suckler scheme where, he believes, the money invested by the State is being absorbed by the beef processors.
He wants a “top to bottom” review of the pricing system for milk and beef, which he feels would show how the primary producers are losing out significantly.
The Guinans have been farming at Rahan since 1900, when Michael’s grandfather bought the place.
The family is now in its fourth farming generation, with eldest son Kevin working on the farm and his brother Damien in his last year of an agri-science degree at UCD. Their sister, Michelle, is a secondary school teacher.
Michael has been one of the lucky ones on the fodder front, saying: “I got two cuts in earlier this year and am on my third at the moment and I have the reserve acres of maize. “I am relatively happy, which is more than can be said for many of my neighbours who have been badly affected by the weather.”
And he has no doubt that as winter beckons, there will be a fodder crisis in most parts of the country, which will be worsened by a shortage of fodder for import.
“The Department have done their best so far but I think they will have to introduce a concentrates voucher scheme for farmers this winter. Maybe such a scheme could be administered through Teagasc,” Michael says.
Off-farm Michael admits to no pursuits apart from keeping an eye on farming issues as he previously travelled the country as the ICMSA livestock chair.
I GOT TWO CUTS OF SILAGE EARLIER IN THE YEAR AND AM ON MY THIRD