TILLAGE

Highest global yield but don't confuse with profits

It seems now to be official. At last week's Teagasc tillage conference in Kilkenny, John Spink of Teagasc made the point that Irish wheat yields are, on average, the highest in the world. We should not get carried away, however. Our mild, damp summers that give us these yields on suitable soils also give us potato blight. See Andy Doyle on page 40.

Fungal diseases are an ongoing battle and while modern technology has transformed Irish tillage production, it has turned us into high cost producers. We have also been able to fully adapt to the zero and min till technology that is sweeping across most of the tillage world. This technology is giving startlingly low crop establishment costs of around €20/acre.

We are being saved from these twin handicaps by our high yields but to make a profit depends on reasonable prices. Despite all the euphoria, last year's prices for grain were little more than the prices received by farmers in the early to mid-1980s - 30 years ago. While prices may have stagnated, costs have not - fertilizer and fuel have both escalated hugely and agri chemicals are now costing at least a half tonne an acre. In an ideal world, we would be developing septoria resistant wheat.

Programmes are underway to achieve this but varieties that would be able to trap nitrogen from the air as clover does would be a huge breakthrough.

One of the tillage areas under most pressure has been potatoes. Consumption has continued to drop and yields over the last few years have been good. The frost damage and Russian outlet that cut back supplies on the Irish consumer market are missing this year.

Losses at producer level have been real and substantial. While supermarkets have been understandably blamed for driving down prices, producers have been slow to organise themselves into co-ordinated producer groups where excess supply could be siphoned off into either exports or cattle feed and a realistic price established.

In the case of spring barley, we have now the second highest yields in the world. Part of this is due to our revamped malting barley industry. The consolidation of Guinness brewing at James' Gate in Dublin and the linkage between farmers, Boortmalt and Guinness auger well for the future of a thriving Irish malting barley industry.

The annual Teagasc conference in late January has always been a good time to stand back and survey the tillage scene. This year, it has been added to by the continuing assessment of the sugar beet possibilities. The news that the two groups will now go their separate ways throws the likelihood of a new industry into doubt.

Commissioner Ciolos, on his visit, correctly said that in the event of quotas going on schedule, it would be up to Ireland to decide if it was competitive. In any event, it seems fairly clear that bio-ethanol and anaerobic digestion will have to be part of the eventual sugarmix if it materialises.