Dairy
Lawrence McNamee, Co Donegal
It’s going to be a loss-making year for the vast majority of farmers around here. The 2c/litre increase for November will help and things have definitely turned on milk price which makes us look forward to next year with a bit more hope.
The weather situation all summer was horrific, though. Only for October coming so good, it would’ve been a write-off – it was a serious lifeline to us all.
In sport you give the losing team three cheers. Well, we’ll give 2016 three cheers and look forward to 2017.
Shane O’Loughlin, Co Wicklow
We’re still alive and happy to be so. It has been a tough year financially. To cope with that, we borrowed money in the middle of the year and spread it out over a few years but if you strip that out, we’re down about €25,000. Weather-wise we’re not too bad. The spring was tough and very late – there was no spring really. We had the diet feeder running until the first week of May and then we were cutting silage two weeks later. On milk price, it’s good to see things moving in the right direction. If the co-op wants to buy all our milk then we’ll give it to them!
Beef
Trevor Boland, Co Sligo
It was wet all summer. Apart from a spell in May and early June, we had no summer really. Saying that, the autumn and winter blew up well and you’d nearly be looking to see if you could get stock out again.
Prices dominated the thoughts of beef farmers this year whether you were a finisher or a suckler producer. Marts have seen the difference between good and bad cattle. Anything with quality has done well while plain animals have struggled. We’ll see more of that next year.
Austin Fanning, Co Wexford
Weather-wise it was a pretty good year; you couldn’t complain about it at all. Every time we put out slurry, it seemed to take well and the grass followed on very well.
Beef price is the big concern going into next year as it was this year. You’d have to be worried and cautious of what will happen to beef prices, especially with Brexit this year. It’s a very uncertain future for prices.
Sheep
Michael Murphy, Co Galway
We had the hardest spring I can remember after the floods of the winter. Grass growth was very poor up until May really and then we had a very wet summer. There was a lot more meal fed in the spring to the early lambs.
We saw no real increase in price this year, it was similar to last year. The Easter lamb market is a short window and, with a bad spring, you have big costs to get the lambs ready. Scanners around here are saying there will be fewer Easter lambs next year.
Ronan Delany, Co Meath
Things were steady enough from a price point of view this year but lamb performance was way, way back on previous years. The lamb killouts were particularly bad and that was driven by the poor and cold spring we had. Looking to next year, we’d hope that things will remain relatively stable. There aren’t too many people getting into 1,000-ewe flocks so if farmers do things half right on their own farm and export markets remain solid then we should be OK.
Tillage
Mervyn Auchmuty, Co Roscommon
The year has been terrible. Just terrible. Everything about the year was bad. The yields were good but we couldn’t get them into the combine and that was because of the weather. The weather all summer was just beyond bad.
What can we do only dust ourselves down and try again next year; we have to, we’re farmers. But there are farmers who have had the Single Farm Payment swallowed up paying bills. What are they going to do next year for credit or buying seed?
George Mason, Co Tipperary
It’s the toughest year that I’ve ever had, definitely. We were fortunate with the weather that we got it cut and that the yields were pretty OK but the price was very, very poor.
The difference and split between costs and the price the farmer gets is completely out of line and would need to be addressed.
Most farmers in this area are fairly fed up as we head into 2017.
Listen to a review of 2016 with the Irish Farmers Journal's livestock team in our podcast beow:
Listen to "Livestock specialists review 2016" on Spreaker.
Read more
2016 - an A to Z of the farming year
Dairy
Lawrence McNamee, Co Donegal
It’s going to be a loss-making year for the vast majority of farmers around here. The 2c/litre increase for November will help and things have definitely turned on milk price which makes us look forward to next year with a bit more hope.
The weather situation all summer was horrific, though. Only for October coming so good, it would’ve been a write-off – it was a serious lifeline to us all.
In sport you give the losing team three cheers. Well, we’ll give 2016 three cheers and look forward to 2017.
Shane O’Loughlin, Co Wicklow
We’re still alive and happy to be so. It has been a tough year financially. To cope with that, we borrowed money in the middle of the year and spread it out over a few years but if you strip that out, we’re down about €25,000. Weather-wise we’re not too bad. The spring was tough and very late – there was no spring really. We had the diet feeder running until the first week of May and then we were cutting silage two weeks later. On milk price, it’s good to see things moving in the right direction. If the co-op wants to buy all our milk then we’ll give it to them!
Beef
Trevor Boland, Co Sligo
It was wet all summer. Apart from a spell in May and early June, we had no summer really. Saying that, the autumn and winter blew up well and you’d nearly be looking to see if you could get stock out again.
Prices dominated the thoughts of beef farmers this year whether you were a finisher or a suckler producer. Marts have seen the difference between good and bad cattle. Anything with quality has done well while plain animals have struggled. We’ll see more of that next year.
Austin Fanning, Co Wexford
Weather-wise it was a pretty good year; you couldn’t complain about it at all. Every time we put out slurry, it seemed to take well and the grass followed on very well.
Beef price is the big concern going into next year as it was this year. You’d have to be worried and cautious of what will happen to beef prices, especially with Brexit this year. It’s a very uncertain future for prices.
Sheep
Michael Murphy, Co Galway
We had the hardest spring I can remember after the floods of the winter. Grass growth was very poor up until May really and then we had a very wet summer. There was a lot more meal fed in the spring to the early lambs.
We saw no real increase in price this year, it was similar to last year. The Easter lamb market is a short window and, with a bad spring, you have big costs to get the lambs ready. Scanners around here are saying there will be fewer Easter lambs next year.
Ronan Delany, Co Meath
Things were steady enough from a price point of view this year but lamb performance was way, way back on previous years. The lamb killouts were particularly bad and that was driven by the poor and cold spring we had. Looking to next year, we’d hope that things will remain relatively stable. There aren’t too many people getting into 1,000-ewe flocks so if farmers do things half right on their own farm and export markets remain solid then we should be OK.
Tillage
Mervyn Auchmuty, Co Roscommon
The year has been terrible. Just terrible. Everything about the year was bad. The yields were good but we couldn’t get them into the combine and that was because of the weather. The weather all summer was just beyond bad.
What can we do only dust ourselves down and try again next year; we have to, we’re farmers. But there are farmers who have had the Single Farm Payment swallowed up paying bills. What are they going to do next year for credit or buying seed?
George Mason, Co Tipperary
It’s the toughest year that I’ve ever had, definitely. We were fortunate with the weather that we got it cut and that the yields were pretty OK but the price was very, very poor.
The difference and split between costs and the price the farmer gets is completely out of line and would need to be addressed.
Most farmers in this area are fairly fed up as we head into 2017.
Listen to a review of 2016 with the Irish Farmers Journal's livestock team in our podcast beow:
Listen to "Livestock specialists review 2016" on Spreaker.
Read more
2016 - an A to Z of the farming year
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