Farmer Writes: Hot markets the backdrop to cold snap

A brief sojourn to the northwest for a wedding last weekend gave a mini break from the farm and it never ceases to amaze me how much cattle can grow when you don’t see them for a few days.

It was only two days but the young bulls especially seemed to have filled out a bit more in my absence.

Their level of feeding will kick up a notch over the coming weeks.

When the weather warms up a little, I’ll thin out some of the pens to give more space. I’m slow to go at that job now due to the risk of any injuries while there’s a chance of ice around.

The road trip necessitated as much looking at the weather forecast as if silage was going to be cut.

Usually, I love to wander away from the motorways and national routes to get a good look at how the rest of the country farms but time restraints and cold conditions meant I was confined to main roads more than I’d like but there was still an opportunity to take an odd diversion just to see local farming conditions.

You won’t see a whole lot in early January but you get a fair idea of what the prevailing conditions are like no matter where you pass through.

We passed through Charleville and Mallow on Saturday afternoon and it was hard to believe how hard snow hit the area a few hours later.

Geography has spared down here much of the extremes of this particular cold snap and the scenes from those areas impacted at the moment remind me of the Beast from the East in 2018.

Markets seem to be in a better position than they have been for a long time and hopefully, we can avoid any dramatic disturbances to them for a while.

The direction taken by the new commission will get its feet firmly under the table in Brussels and will have some say in that.

Chaos

It’s a much more chaotic world now compared to when their predecessors began their term.

A pair of wars on the borders of the continent could focus minds back on food production but maybe they’re hedging bets on making South America the breadbasket of Europe with the Mercosur deal.

Fresh elections in Germany and an unstable France could complicate things as the pair have historically been the bulwarks of the European project.

The new administration across the Atlantic will impact the direction of the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) too, especially with how it acts in regard to Ukraine, security and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) funding.

Similar to Boris Johnson, incoming US president Donald Trump has the ability to distract from bigger issues with an attention-grabbing statement so it’s worth looking at what he does rather than what he says.

Threats of more tariffs and the USA becoming more insular or Pacific-focused could leave the EU isolated and that will see priorities change.

New Minister

Closer to home, we’re likely to have a new team in Kildare Street shortly.

Farmers will be looking to whoever the next Minister for Agriculture is but I think equally they will be looking in another direction.

With the Green Party and Eamon Ryan no longer in government, who will take their place as the lightning rod for farmers to blame for their ills?

They may not be alone as the Government will be on the lookout for a replacement for the Green mudguard which proved very convenient when it came to the blame game over the last five years.