After a good year for most sectors, tillage is acknowledged as the one sector that was left behind this year.
High input costs and low harvest prices mean many tillage farmers are facing financial pressure as their crops fail to cover their costs of production.
In fact, Teagasc’s Dr Fiona Thorne recently told the Irish Farmers Journal that for five of the last 10 years, the largest cereal crop in the country – spring barley – has been grown by farmers at a loss.
In last year’s budget, then-Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue announced the Tillage and Horticultural Support 2024.
It was aimed at supporting support tillage farmers in a year of significant challenges in 2024, including high input costs, reduced output prices and the adverse impacts of wet weather.
That scheme delivered a payment of €100/ha for tillage and field-grown crops, including horticultural crops, harvested in 2024.
In all, it saw €32.36m paid to 10,699 farmers and was an important payment received ahead of spring planting in 2025.
Seeking €60m
This year, the tillage sector is looking to build on this support and is seeking a payment of €60m per annum and the introduction of a commitment for longer-term payment over a three- to five-year period.
A gathering of over 700 deeply unhappy tillage farmers who gathered at an Irish Farmers' Association tillage crisis meeting in Co Kildare on 12 September were told by Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon: “It would be madness of me to make a commitment in this room tonight when I’m in the middle of negotiations that are difficult. Trust me on that one.”
Tillage farmers will be hoping that Minister Heydon took their message back to Paschal Donohoe and Jack Chambers that they need a lifeline to continue sowing crops.
At the same meeting, Shay Phelan of Teagasc highlighted the hike in input costs for tillage farmers, noting that fertiliser prices doubled between 2017 and 2025. Land rental costs were similar, rising from €385/ha in 2017 to a forecast €792/ha for 2026.
There are positive soundings around a support payment, but whether it spans more than just Budget 2026 and goes significantly beyond last year’s payment of €100/ha remains to be seen.
The €10m straw incorporation scheme will be cited as a point of support, but this funding is already allocated under CAP, so it will not be additional funding.
In recent days, there has been speculation that funding for other schemes in the beef and sheep sectors might be redirected to support the tillage sector and the burgeoning TB costs, but such a move could prove very divisive among farmers.
Read more
'This sector can’t be neglected' - over 700 at tillage meeting
Tillage Podcast: 'Tillage is so uncertain - it’s like doing the lotto'
“Where will the money come from to plant crops?”
After a good year for most sectors, tillage is acknowledged as the one sector that was left behind this year.
High input costs and low harvest prices mean many tillage farmers are facing financial pressure as their crops fail to cover their costs of production.
In fact, Teagasc’s Dr Fiona Thorne recently told the Irish Farmers Journal that for five of the last 10 years, the largest cereal crop in the country – spring barley – has been grown by farmers at a loss.
In last year’s budget, then-Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue announced the Tillage and Horticultural Support 2024.
It was aimed at supporting support tillage farmers in a year of significant challenges in 2024, including high input costs, reduced output prices and the adverse impacts of wet weather.
That scheme delivered a payment of €100/ha for tillage and field-grown crops, including horticultural crops, harvested in 2024.
In all, it saw €32.36m paid to 10,699 farmers and was an important payment received ahead of spring planting in 2025.
Seeking €60m
This year, the tillage sector is looking to build on this support and is seeking a payment of €60m per annum and the introduction of a commitment for longer-term payment over a three- to five-year period.
A gathering of over 700 deeply unhappy tillage farmers who gathered at an Irish Farmers' Association tillage crisis meeting in Co Kildare on 12 September were told by Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon: “It would be madness of me to make a commitment in this room tonight when I’m in the middle of negotiations that are difficult. Trust me on that one.”
Tillage farmers will be hoping that Minister Heydon took their message back to Paschal Donohoe and Jack Chambers that they need a lifeline to continue sowing crops.
At the same meeting, Shay Phelan of Teagasc highlighted the hike in input costs for tillage farmers, noting that fertiliser prices doubled between 2017 and 2025. Land rental costs were similar, rising from €385/ha in 2017 to a forecast €792/ha for 2026.
There are positive soundings around a support payment, but whether it spans more than just Budget 2026 and goes significantly beyond last year’s payment of €100/ha remains to be seen.
The €10m straw incorporation scheme will be cited as a point of support, but this funding is already allocated under CAP, so it will not be additional funding.
In recent days, there has been speculation that funding for other schemes in the beef and sheep sectors might be redirected to support the tillage sector and the burgeoning TB costs, but such a move could prove very divisive among farmers.
Read more
'This sector can’t be neglected' - over 700 at tillage meeting
Tillage Podcast: 'Tillage is so uncertain - it’s like doing the lotto'
“Where will the money come from to plant crops?”
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