There was a 16% drop in the total production of three of the main cereals grown in Ireland last year, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

In 2020, Irish tillage farmers harvested 2,013,000t of barley, wheat and oats – a 380,000t decrease on the 2019 figure of 2,396,000t.

The drop in production has been attributed to changes in the proportion of winter and spring cereal crops for the 2020 growing season. Winter cereal production fell by almost 48%, while spring cereal harvests were up 40%.

Cereals

The figures are broken down by the area of different cereal crops grown as well as production.

Wheat production fell by 243,000t, or 38%, to 393,000t, while the area sown dropped by 16,500ha, 26% less than 2019.

Production of barley was down to 1,430,000t, a 128,000t (8%) decrease on 2019 levels. Over 193,000ha of land was under barley in 2020, a 7.7% increase.

The level of oats harvested dropped by over 6% to 190,000t, despite a 6.8% increase in area sown, which was up to 25,400ha.

Peas and potatoes

Production of peas and beans were up almost 50% to 66,000t, while sown area was up by 60% to 13,700ha.

The data also shows that 300,000t of potatoes were harvested last year, a 21.5% decrease on the previous year. The area planted with potatoes increased slightly to 8,900ha.

Incomes

IFA grain chair Mark Browne said the incomes of tillage farmers could be down 15% for 2020 because of the sharp drop in yields.

“There’s an emphasis at Government level on increasing the tillage area in this country, and promoting the use of native grain and protein crops in livestock rations,” Browne said.

To achieve these goals, Government actions and policy must support the sector, he added.