According to Justin McCarthy, editor of the Irish Farmers Journal the agricultural market is in an "uncertain" place.

"Markets generally fall into three categories: positive, negative and uncertain. The outlook for agriculture is in that uncertain sphere," he said.

"There are factors at play and nobody can predict what impact they will have in terms of Irish farming," McCarthy added, hinting at the agenda for the morning's briefing, which included the impact of cheap grain on Irish tillage farmers, beef in China and Brexit.

Tillage

On grain, tillage editor Andy Doyle acknowledged that tillage farmers "are going through a tough old time".

"The market is buoyant, we’re consuming a huge amount of grain, 20m plus extra tonnes are being consumed every year.

"However, the world has managed to produce more than that, and the stocks are pressurising prices and challenging margins."

Doyle said that while farmers can usually overcome challenging margins, average yields have caused low prices to have more of an impact this year.

"Real decisions have to be made by farmers now," he added. "If you want to be in the tillage business you can only afford land that has the highest yield potential".

Chinese market

Having just returned from a trade tour of Asia with Bord Bia's chief executive Aidan Cotter and Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed, dairy editor Jack Kennedy discussed the positive signs emerging from the China for Irish dairy. These include a growing population and growing middle class.

"Nearly 19m babies will be born every year in China for the next three or four years - that will lead to a huge demand for infant formula," Kennedy said.

"Plus the growing middle class means there will be more money to spend on the beef protein/dairy protein. You can now see beef on the shelves in China. Nice cuts of loin… premium beef."

"Although it's GDP is not where it was five or six years ago, China is still a growing economy," he concluded.

Despite the great optimism earlier last year when the Chinese market opened to Irish beef, it remains out of bounds for now

However, market specialist Phelim O'Neill is not holding out any hopes that Irish beef will be on the shelves in China any time soon.

"Despite the great optimism earlier last year when the Chinese market opened to Irish beef, it remains out of bounds for now. It's not looking like it will be the solution to our beef problems."

He added that even when China does being to import our beef it will only be under 30 month cattle so long as we maintain our status as negligible BSE risk.

Brexit

Of course, Brexit was touched on during the briefing.

O'Neill said Ireland will be the country most impacted by Brexit – "the majority of our cheddar cheese and beef is exported there, there's no way Brexit won't have some negative impact on us."

He added that no deal the UK strikes in its exit negotiations can surpass the single market it currently shares with the rest of the EU.

"It can’t be any better than the common market. But the other fear is what trade deals will the UK make with other countries when it is no longer a member. Will the UK make a deal with Mercosur or Australia?"

Optimism

There was, however, some optimism too, with speakers including IFA president Joe Healy (pictured below) touching on the recently improved milk and pig prices.

And there was encouragement for young people going into agriculture and choosing to study agriculture in college: "It's a great basis for young people to go into because we have strong agricultural community," said James Maloney, machinery editor and former lecturer in Kildalton College.

"Students should choose a course they have a fundamental liking for, though, because then they will stick with it," he added.

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