Letter from Farm Contractors of Ireland re tillage plight

Richard White, national chair, Association of Farm Contractors of Ireland (FCI)

DEAR SIR: In the recent July 30 edition of the Irish Farmers Journal, in an article entitled ‘10 reasons every farmer should worry about grain prices’, the writer Pat O’Toole advocated in point five that farmers seeking to reseed on livestock farms should give the business to income-strapped tillage farmers, rather than contractors. He advocated: ‘Reseeding is important and expensive on livestock farms, who better to help out than your friendly local tillage farmer.’

The members of the Association of Farm Contractors of Ireland (FCI) sympathise with the income plight of tillage farmers. Many of them carry out contracting work on their behalf, but surely the solution to the lack of income on tillage farm is not to take away from the income of Irish farm contractors who have invested in machines and skills to carry out this reseeding work efficiently and cost-effectively.

The main problem for tillage farmers is low income as a result of low prices. High machinery costs on tillage farms are also a contributory factor to lower incomes. Irish agricultural gross margin figures rarely take account of machinery costs as these are considered fixed costs, while contractor charges are seen as variable costs.

This often masks the true high costs of excessive and sometimes unnecessary machinery investment on tillage farms.

FCI would suggest that Pat O’Toole would have been better advised to look at what is being advised in a similar situation in Denmark where tillage farmers’ incomes are also under pressure. In Denmark, farmers are being advised by their farm organisation advisers and farming banks to reduce their costs by selling some of their excess machinery and using cost-effective contractor services instead.