Feed imports into Ireland rise in 2022

Ireland needs to import large amounts of animal feed each year in order to meet the feed requirements of the national herd. About 6.5m tonnes of grains and feedstuff are imported each year into the Republic of Ireland.

The figures in this article give an idea of import trends and countries of origin. Imports of the three major grains – barley, wheat and maize – increased overall this year.

It is important to keep an eye on these figures. Ireland’s tillage sector is small and at risk of getting much smaller at present as land exits the sector to dairy and solar farms, but having an Irish source of feed has never been more important. More could be made out of the Irish grain that is produced.

At this year’s Teagasc national tillage conference, director Frank O’Mara said: “The fact that we import a lot of our grain is often seized upon by people who say we don’t have a sustainable livestock sector here in Ireland.”

Beneficial

He explained that replacing some of the imported grain with homegrown grain would be very beneficial to lowering the carbon footprint of Irish meat and milk.

While Irish tillage farmers will never feed all the animals of this country, the farmers who choose Irish should be rewarded for doing so.

They should be rewarded for choosing a product that supports Irish farmers and a grain that is produced to strict rules around fertiliser and pesticides, as well as carrying a low carbon footprint compared to many other grains, particularly those from deforested areas.

Imports of barley increased by almost 10,000t in 2022, wheat increased by nearly 53,000t and maize increased by 360,161t.

In spring of 2022, many grain buyers stocked up on grain as the war in Ukraine began.

The Government set up the national fodder and food security committee and advice was generally to stock up.

This may have contributed somewhat to the rise.

Dry weather in the summer also hindered grass and silage production in some cases, which would also add to the rise.

We must remember that while imports were at their highest, so to were grain prices, with over €300/t paid for green barley for harvest 2022.

Maize imports are back to 2018 and 2019 levels, years where there was strong demand for feed due to extreme weather events.

Although barley and wheat imports are not up at the levels seen in those years.

Canada supplied the most maize in 2022. 549,286t were shipped across the Atlantic. Brazil supplied a massive 507,934t. After this, figures were significantly lower.

Some 173,336t came from Ukraine. These imports were significantly reduced after the war broke out.

A total of 136,456t came from France.

A large amount of maize is used in the distilling industry and some of this comes from France. It is unclear how much is used for distilling, but most likely more than what is coming from France.

Some 119,948t of maize came from Northern Ireland, but it would not have been grown there so the origin is unclear, and 70,724t came from the United States.

Maize imports totalled approximately 1,582,982t, according to the Central Statistics Office.

These figures are subject to change.

In total, 227,920t of wheat were imported in the year, mostly for animal feed as the majority of flour in this country is imported when it is almost ready to be bagged.

An estimated 137,882t of wheat came from Britain, 32,882t crossed the border from Northern Ireland and 41,274t came from France. Some 15,808t travelled from Denmark.

The majority of the 180,823t of barley imported to the Republic of Ireland came across the water from Britain (103,920t).

Approximately 36,197t came from Northern Ireland and 37,351t came from France. Positively, malt imports have decreased significantly in recent years.

Approximately 3.5m tonnes of other animal feedstuffs were imported. This includes things like soyabean meal. Almost one million tonnes of animal feedstuffs were imported from Argentina in 2023. Approximately half of this was soyabean meal.

As tillage farmers, in the main we are better to grow premium grains such as malting barley and food-grade oats, but feed grains are a huge part of the system.

If the tillage area is to increase under the Climate Action Plan, then solutions will need to be found and one of these would be to put a value on Irish grain.

At present, livestock farmers are not rewarded on their Bord Bia audit for using Irish grain.

The system does not differentiate between a native Irish ration and a ration produced from imports. It does penalise farmers for using soya, but this is crude.

There are huge variations in carbon footprints between US soya and soya, which comes from land that has been deforested, for example.

Work is needed in Ireland to have accurate figures for the carbon footprint of Irish grain as well.

Work is being carried out by Teagasc and UCD, but this is a slow process.

Accurate figures need to be supplied for Ireland to initiatives like the Global Feed Lifecycle Assessment Unit.

If the Government is serious about increasing tillage area, then is it not time to look at Irish-fed produce? This could provide a premium for tillage farmers and livestock farmers.

Carbon footprints are being printed on milk cheques, supermarkets are talking about sustainable soya and, in time, it will be common practice to have a carbon footprint on a packet of meat or carton of milk.

Surely there is a place for Irish-fed produce. Bord Bia has a lot of work to do and the Government needs to start to take action or these import figures will increase again in the years to come as tillage land area is set to decline this season.

These figures include two different feeding seasons. Imports generally rise in dry weather and prolonged wet weather. They have increased in years where Brexit was a concern and this year when war broke out in Ukraine.