Straw price rises as supplies tighten for good-quality stocks

THE straw market has finally kicked into gear, with traders reporting stronger demand and higher prices for good-quality stocks.

The floor price for top-grade straw has topped €20/bale for 4x4 bales in north Leinster and the midlands, but the general consensus is that supplies are tight.

Prices are a shade easier in Wexford and south Munster where straw is more plentiful, with a base price of €18 generally available for 4x4 bales.

Good straw is hard got, and the price of it has moved to a base of €20/bale.

“There’s a lot of lower-quality straw on offer that can be bought for €15/ bale, but you don’t know what you’re getting,” one straw trader said.

“Demand is steady enough but there have been more calls of late.

I think the penny has dropped with farmers that we are going to struggle with supplies this year.

“The biggest worry that I have is trying to get straw of good enough quality.”

Sale prices of large bales (8x4x3) for the mushroom sector have also risen steeply, with prices ranging from €40/bale to €48/bale.

Imported straw will also be scarcer this year. Recent reports from England indicate that straw prices have topped £100/t, as a result of tighter supplies due to the poor harvest weather.

Meanwhile, winter cereal sowings have bounced back from last year’s low of less than 90,000ha.

Atrocious planting conditions last autumn resulted in the area of winter crops falling by more than 40pc.

However, the industry sources claimed that the total area sown to winter crops is likely to top 130,000ha, despite tight supplies of seed for some varieties of winter barley.

Farmers are wrapping up sowing of winter barley, with the vast majority said to be finished this week.

Staying with tillage, IFA said the harvest prices announced by Dairygold last week will put a floor on the market for grain.

Dairygold is paying €157/t for feed barley, €183/t for feed wheat, €152/t for oats, €187/t for malting barley, €210/t for beans and €360/t for oilseed rape.

“While the prices will not cover production costs for the farmers who suffered considerable yield losses this season, they do somewhat acknowledge the difficult tillage season,” said IFA grain chairman Mark Browne.