The tillage area is expected to increase this season, according to head of tillage knowledge transfer at Teagasc Michael Hennessy.

This point was made at the third meeting of the National Fodder and Food Security Committee, where chair Mike Magan called for a tillage summit to be held.

He said there was a need for a national discussion to take place on the tillage sector in Ireland.

Magan was responding to Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) grain chair Kieran McEvoy’s comments in which he welcomed the Tillage Incentive Scheme (TIS), but said that tillage farmers need more confidence going into the 2023 season, which starts in August 2022.

Irish Grain Growers Group (IGGG) chair Bobby Miller noted that specialist tillage farmers were not the main cohort of farmers benefiting from the scheme and called on feed mills to put a focus on locally-sourced protein in future.

Seed sales increase

On the increase in area, Michael Hennessy noted that there has been an estimated 5% increase in seed sales across all tillage crops. However, the real increase in area will not be known until BPS applications are made.

He expects the protein crop area to be back on 2021 and noted that with no strong signal on price, growers chose cereal crops, with higher prices being announced.

Added to this, he noted that a survey of 119 Teagasc clients, 85% of whom classified themselves as mainly tillage farmers, showed that 41% of farmers had forward sold grain. Usually, this figure is about 25% to 30%.

Hennessy noted that while prices have increased to over €300/t, those prices are probably what is needed to make a margin on tillage farms.

He added that winter crops are in good condition, spring crops have established well, but good weather is still needed to ensure high yields at harvest.

Tillage Incentive Scheme uptake

Of farmers surveyed by the Teagasc tillage team (85% classified as mainly tillage farms), 25% said they were availing of the TIS announced by Government and 93% intend for this land to remain in tillage in 2023.

Eight percent of drystock farmers surveyed (a total of 936 were surveyed) by Teagasc said they have availed of the TIS to grow cereals, while 40% stated that they will retain that area in tillage in 2023.

The remaining 60% intend to put that land back into grass by reseeding or have undersown the cereal crop with grass.

Imports

Grain imports were reported to be running OK at present. However, it is a relatively quiet time of the year for feed.

It was also mentioned at the meeting that discussion was happening on maximum residue limits for chemicals on grain imports.