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In my father’s time, the local silage contractor used to call in November to collect what he was owed for work done during the summer months.
In the midst of the usual talk about how people were dying and sick like never before, and how the farming world was tougher than ever, I remember one conversation where the contractor counted out the months that a farmer must feed his animals.
That is, how many months the cattle and cows could not graze and had to be fed silage, either outside or in a shed.
For dramatic effect, he counted out on his fingers and declared that the unfortunate farmer must now feed his animals for nearly six months of the year.
He shook his head and wondered how anyone could stay going if things continued like that.
The year was 1996.
Golden era
Many cattle were housed in August of last year and will not be back out until mid-April, giving a feeding period of nearly eight months. The days of six-month winters now seem like a golden era of the past.
Increased stocking rates are contributing to this extra pressure.
Fields that were once paddocks and producing good grass are now growing rushes and being planted with forestry
Since margins have reduced so much, it’s not worthwhile keeping the animals unless you have enough of them via high stocking rates.
In parallel, the general weather trend over the past decades has seen wetter, milder winters. Leaving climate change aside, this is the reality that farmers are seeing on the ground (and in the mud).
Fields that were once paddocks and producing good grass are now growing rushes and being planted with forestry.
Honesty
The question then becomes, what can farmers do?
Being honest is the first step. Just because advisers and the wider agri-industry say something is possible does not make it so, even if you want to be it.
We would love to have the “advised” rate of five ewes to the acre on our farm. We could drive on, increasing output by so many kilos per acre and profits would soar. But given the wet nature of some of our ground, three ewes per acre is the maximum we can carry.
We can also lamb slightly later and put up more housing.
Dairy and beef farmers can do something similar. But then income will drop while costs go up, and we move closer to that uncomfortable red line that divides profit from loss.
We can also tinker with other parts of our on-farm production systems, but the bottom line is that longer winters are here to stay, meaning smaller margins and more stress.
It’s time our farming representative bodies looked at how more value can be added to what we produce rather than putting pressure on farmers to produce more via unsustainably high stocking rates in an increasingly harsh environment for man and beast.
Kieran Sullivan and his brother farm part-time in Co Waterford. You can follow him on Twitter: @kieran_sullivan
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