The aftermath of the summer drought has hit farmers in the south of the country hard, with farmers and IFA representatives gathering at Tom Cooke’s dairy farm in Co Limerick on Monday to hear first-hand how farmers in the area were coping.

Pretty dire

“It’s pretty dire in this area. Definitely, we’ve been worse affected by the drought from mid-June onwards.

“Here on the farm we have four to four and a half months' fodder, which will not be enough going on previous experience,” Tom Cooke said.

The fodder situation in the region has been compounded by the prolonged spring earlier this year, which saw fodder stocks depleted.

“We were cleaned out. It was a case of start from scratch and we never really made up the lost ground,” Cooke said.

“Costs have gone through the roof. The meal bill has definitely doubled, with no hope of improving the situation at this stage. We’re finding it very difficult to build up covers ahead of the cows. It’s just gone too late," he said.

“We’re getting round bales of straw delivered in at €35/bale, in comparison to €18/bale last year, which is [almost] a 100% increase.

“Silage is probably about 50% dearer than last year. You’re talking about €35/bale versus €22/bale or €23/bale last year.”

Localised

His sentiments were echoed by Limerick IFA chair Shay Galvin, who said that the drought situation had been very localised, but hit a number of farmers in the middle of the county hard.

“Fellas have fed an awful lot during the summer and these bills are mounting up, so we need a bit of finance support and we need surety of fodder going into the winter as well,” Galvin said.

“If cattle go out in February and they go in in November, there'll be no shortage of fodder in County Limerick, but if they go in in October and they’re not out till April, there will be a massive shortage.”

Many parts of the province have been badly affected, Munster chair John Coughlin told the Irish Farmers Journal.

“There’s an awful lot of farmers in the Munster region and parts of south Leinster that are really affected by the fodder crisis,” he said.

“Fodder has got very scarce in the country, but has also got very expensive, and we see now where an awful lot of farmers have fed silage over the summer and a lot of extra meal, it’s all leading to a cashflow situation on farms because of the amount of extra expense.”

IFA president Joe Healy was also at the event and commented on the need for Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed to immediately introduce low-cost loans to help farmers with the fodder situation.

Read more

Fodder crisis cannot be used to drop cattle prices – McConalogue

National fodder deficit stands at three million tonnes