FARMERS REVEAL EXTENT OF FODDER CRISIS AROUND THE COUNTY
STRETCHED FARMERS DESPERATELY HOPING FOR WEATHER TO TURN
IT’S Mid-April and there’s not a cow in sight driving south to Riverstown.
They are still cooped up in huge pungent farm sheds, eating ever scarer supplies of fodder when they’d normally be out chewing the cud in grassy fields by now.
The deceptively green fields lie empty - it’s been simply too cold and the grass hasn’t grown.
The beef and dairy herds remain out of public view while their owners scramble to keep them fed.
Like the rest of the country, Sligo has endured an unusually long winter. The combination of last year’s early onset of autumn and this year’s late spring has forced farmers like Raymond Barlow to feed their cattle indoors for over eight months.
This week will be crucial - farmers are banking on warmer drier weather to allow them finally release their herds.
Any profit they hoped to make this year has already been spent on the extra fodder. Most have only a few days fodder left.
Like most farmers in the North West, Raymond lost his usual second cut of silage last August due to bad weather which cost him 200 bales.
“It rained all summer. You usually get a good spell in September but it never came. The cows were gone in full time by September. I’m eight months feeding cows. I knew I was going to be short. I’m buying all winter to top up my own reserves,” he told The Sligo Champion in his Riverstown home where he lives with his wife Audrey and sons David (15) and George (13).
Last September he was paying ¤45 for a bale of straw. The same bale is now selling for about ¤80.
“The cows aren’t out yet, we’re waiting for this good weather that’s supposed to come. It hasn’t come. There’s grass on that field out there,” he said, pointing to the field out the window. “But that took two inches of rain the other night. If you put the cows out onto that they’d just plough it up. I might get a week out of it but then I’d have nothing next week. I have about four or five days of silage left,” he said.
If he’s stuck, he’ ll have to let his cows out next week but then he’ ll suffer in June because it’ ll be cut up.
Raymond last bought fodder off a neighbour and off the Aurivo Co- Op, of which he is Vice- Chairman.
He also bought maize silage in Kildare last month - not the kind of silage he’d normally but “we could get it. That’s why we bought it.”
It’s high quality but doesn’t come cheap at ¤2,500 a load.
“I had three farmers ring me this morning asking where can they buy silage if the weather doesn’t pick up. They’ ll be out of fodder by the weekend,” he said.
Through their network of stores, specialists, reps on the road, Aurivo Co- Op knew a crisis was coming, said Raymond.
They held a series of meetings in Sligo, Donegal and Leitrim which over 400 farmers attended last September.
Those who attended started buying fodder stretcher and their feeds early to stretch what they had.
“In fairness to the Co- Op, they’ve been selling hay and straw at cost. They’re selling a three-way fodder stretcher since last September at ¤30 a tonne below cost,” he said.
Cows will eat straw if it’s supplemented with fodder stretcher.
“This Co- Op locally sells hay and straw. Whatever they can get they’ ll put out at cost price, which is costing them to subsidise.
The constant worry and search for fodder has left farmers like Raymond “drained.”
“Financially it’s tough but I think physically and mentally it just drains you,” he said. His dairy herd would normally be out a month by now, which in turn has lowered their milk output.
“We normally budget for a 5-6 month winter here which is quite long anyway but we’re heading for 8 now,” he said.
It’s the longest winter Raymond has ever seen: “We’ve often had a bad back-end but with a good spring or vice-versa. It’s rare that you’d get the two hitting together.”
“The weather has been a continuous problem in this area for the last three or four years in a row. We haven’t had a good summer since 2013. We actually ran out of feed that spring but there was loads in reserve around the country but this year now it’s tough,” he said.
A feed depot in the UK is sending a hundred loads a day to Co- Ops in Ireland. Such is the extent of the extra costs on farmers, Raymond estimates that some farmers have spent between ¤5,000-¤30,000 extra on fodder alone this winter, on top of normal feed costs.
The mood is low among farmers in the region - “they’re getting fed up” - with the result that farmers are now planning to cut back on their livestock numbers for next winter.
“You can see the amount of culled cows going through marts and factories,” said Raymond.
The Barlow family has farmed in Riverstown for generations. Their original farmhouse is over 200 years old. After the winter he’s had, Raymond has decided to reduce his suckler stock.
“Whatever hope you have of returning a few pound from dairy, beef has very low margins. The cost of keeping those cows is huge. Especially if you’ve to keep them in for eight months of the year,” he said.