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The ongoing drop in the area sown to cereals is hitting the supply of straw. Cereals area fell by almost 50,000ha in the past few years, equating to a loss of more than one million 4x4 round bales of straw.
The drop in cereal area is caused by land going back to grass, by low profitability and a switch to alternative crops.
In 2017 alone, the cereals area fell by around 16,000ha, equating to around 400,000 bales at 10 bales per acre. The problem may be worse in counties where a lot of land is going back to grass for dairying.
Less acres sown
For example, Cork planted roughly 3,000ha of first grass in each of the past two years and this land has gone out of tillage. There were 5,492 fewer acres sown to cereals in Cork in 2017 versus 2016, equating to nearly 55,000 bales.
Straw yield itself has been variable in 2017.
From here on, the number of bales per acre will be lower as straw becomes more brittle. Straw sitting in rows awaiting baling will suffer losses.
The difficulty in getting straw cleared has forced some growers to turn on straw choppers to avoid delays in planting of new crops.
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