One in four farmers still facing fodder deficit

ONE in four farmers are still facing a fodder deficit following last year’s extreme weather conditions, a Teagasc survey has found.

Teagasc ruminant nutrition specialist Brian Garry said the effects of last summer’s drought could still be felt this spring.

“This situation could be exacerbated if we get a late spring, resulting in a later turnout than planned on the farms completing this survey,” he said.

Three quarters of the 364 farmers surveyed told Teagasc that they have enough feed to see them through until the end of the winter housing period.

However, despite the mild winter around one in eight farms are 10pc short of stocks, while one in six have a shortfall of over 10pc or more than two weeks’ feed. On average there was a fodder requirement of 51 t DM on farms with 69 t DM of fodder in stock on these farms