This week’s Teagasc 2021 Crop Trials event marks a welcome return for a limited number of farmers to view research that is critical to helping maintain high levels of efficiency.

The Irish Farmers Journal broadcast live from Oak Park on Wednesday. You can watch back at www.ifj.ie/crops and this week’s Focus provides an overview of what can be seen and what has been learned thus far from a range of research topics.

The tillage sector has always been highly receptive to technology, so getting access to research and technical information is critical. While the attendance must still be limited by COVID-19 restrictions, the industry must acknowledge the work done by all at Oak Park to make this happen. Because only limited numbers can attend, it is important that all growers have access to the findings of this highly technical research.

Blackgrass

Oak Park hit the headlines earlier in the spring when the dreaded blackgrass was found in an area that had been sown to a wildflower mix last autumn. This probably did more to increase the awareness of this scourge of tillage land than most previous efforts, but we should remember that it can equally become a serious problem in intensive grassland if it is allowed to exist. Just because a farmer does not have tillage does not exclude him or her from the curse of this weed.

One of the main reasons this weed has been expanding so rapidly is the fact that people do not recognise it. To help in this regard, the tillage team at the Irish Farmers Journal has initiated a campaign to put posters showing the weed into all locations where farmers are likely to do business. The poster has a range of images to help people identify blackgrass if it appears in a field, or elsewhere.

This is a critical time for its identification as it is now eared out and showing its distinctive heads, which are visible above the crop. If you can find and remove the first plant you can stop an epidemic, so vigilance is critical. Recognition and identification are the first steps and the pictures and other details in these posters should help farmers and consultants to do this.

CAP trauma

Just as our tillage farmers had reason to believe that the sector really mattered on many fronts, they get thrown under the bus again. The crop area was beginning to recover some of the area losses of the past decade and now the requirements of the recent CAP agreement impose even more income challenges than those that had been anticipated.

While the new CAP will continue to erode direct income support, it is also imposing a number of other requirements such as obligatory rotation, no bare ground, at least 4% idle land, bigger pesticide- and fertiliser-free buffer zones, etc. Tillage farmers were the only ones who had to act to meet the greening requirements in the last CAP and the reward for that seems to be even more harsh and income-draining constraints this time.

Convergence – stated and cloaked – will continue to erode incomes and confidence. While the overall impact may be even more problematic in other countries, its impact on confidence here will further erode generational transfer within the sector. If this happens, it will mean more feed imports and possible constraints on specialist crop production for the drinks industry. The listings of potential exemptions from specific measures appear to support leguminous or protein crops but any potential benefit would be limited by loss of tillage area.

The Department of Agriculture has been handed the awkward task of attempting to minimise the impact of the worst aspects of this agreement. But the erosion in direct EU support will also have to be addressed if the objective is to at least maintain a viable tillage sector. Previous CAPs had some redeeming features – they are well buried in this one.