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Decreasing soil health, commodity price pressure, an ever-shrinking pool of crop protection chemicals and the uncertainty of Brexit dominated the recent Ulster Arable Conference in Greenmount Agricultural College.
In his opening address, Ulster Farmers Union president Ivor Ferguson said that while there are lots of difficulties with Boris Johnson’s Brexit withdrawal agreement, he firmly believed there were new opportunities ahead of Northern Irish growers. He stressed that the tillage sector is well placed to provide environmental benefits in the face of challenges such as climate change and ammonia emissions.
But growers took this opportunity to outline their concerns for the future of the sector and called for measures to safeguard it. These included a continuation of direct support, a TAMS-style tillage machinery scheme and a protein aid scheme for protein crops similar to southern Ireland.
Glyphosate timeline
Bayer’s Mark Buckingham gave an outline of the approval process for glyphosate in the EU. In 2017 glyphosate received Annex 1 re-authorisation for five years, meaning approval is due to run out in 2022.
Mark said work has begun on the next tranche of authorisation for the herbicide active, which continues to draw controversy over its alleged cancer risk. However, the scientific evidence of its safety remains robust, according to Mark. The industry will be asking for the authorisation period to be extended beyond five years for this tranche, possibly up to 15 years he explained.
The application for the renewal of authorisation was submitted on 12 December 2019 by the newly formed Glyphosate Renewal Group (GRG) to the evaluating member states, European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Commission and all other EU member states. The CRG will submit a single dossier with all the scientific studies and information on the safety of glyphosate to the evaluating member states and the EFSA in June 2020.
The EU recently announced a new renewal process which will see this dossier be reviewed by four member states. These four rapporteur countries are the Netherlands (leading on human health), France (leading on eco-toxicology), and Hungary and Sweden (minor roles).
A decision from the EFSA is expected in the second half of 2021. Following this, pending a decision to approve re-authorisation of the active, the political process of comitology (consultation with every EU member state) is expected in 2022.
Grain marketing
Ben Fraser, grain trader with W&R Barnett, said the total grain output of NI is a drop in the ocean in terms of global output.
NI growers, similar to growers in the south, are price takers, which means they need to be smart when marketing grain.
He said you shouldn’t try and beat the market. Instead, look at the trends. Prices generally bottom out from August and September. From October to January we usually see rise in grain prices before a fall again.
While every year is different, harvest time is
generally when prices are at their lowest for that marketing year.
He stressed that the tillage sector is well placed to provide environmental benefits in the face of challenges such as climate change and ammonia emissions
Soil health in focus
Teagasc’s Dr Patrick Forrestal urged growers to make use of organic manures. Lower organic matter levels causes soil to slump, lose structure and won’t allow water to filter through. Even incorporating small amounts of organic manures over time will have a beneficial impact to soil structure, he said.
Soils currently support 95% of food production and by 2060 we will be asked to provide as much food as we have consumed in the last 500 years.
Healthy soils will form the backbone of this and need to be looked after. While severe erosion of topsoil through wind is rare here, it’s common to see it washed away during times of heavy rain.
Cover crops can play an important role in preventing this, as well as catching nutrients for the following season’s crops.
Patrick explained the benefits these ‘solar panels’ have in terms of capturing nutrients and carbon, improving soil structure and generally improving the health of your soils ecosystem.
The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board’s (AHDB) Northern Irish monitor farmer Richard Orr is a progressive young tillage farmer from Downpatrick who grows wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, field vegetables and silage across 155ha. He also runs a farm shop and tea room.
Richard addressed the massive changes coming for NI farmers, due in part to Brexit. However, he sees this as an opportunity to kickstart radical change in the industry.
Annual payments will likely be significantly reduced, which will force change at farm level. This could mean a lot of inefficient businesses that are unwilling to adapt will be under pressure.
He sees this as an opportunity to kickstart radical change in the industry
As part of the AHDB monitor farm programme, Richard set a number of goals for his farm. One of his key aims is to try to increase organic matter levels and fertility of his soils. This is being done partially through adopting a minimum tillage approach where he can. Even with potatoes in his rotation, he has been able to adopt a minimum tillage establishment style for his crops.
He does this by using a George Moate Tillerstar which prepares the seed bed for potatoes without the need for ridging or destoning in one pass.
He establishes a cover crop and applies organic manures on ground which is destined for potatoes. He explained that the cover crops help to hold nutrients and improve soil structure before using the Tillerstar.
He noted that fields with reduced cultivations were much easier to travel on last year. Despite the tricky autumn, he established most of his crops through minimum tillage last year.
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