DEAR EDITOR

Last week, as rumours started that the Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM) was to be suspended for 2024, I was in disbelief.

At first, I thought this could never happen, but as time went on, it soon became clear that this was indeed the reality. I can’t understand the reasoning behind this decision.

For tillage farmers, we have come through an incredibly difficult 12 months with poor weather and fluctuating grain prices.

Many key management decisions were made early in the year for both winter and spring crops, based on the expectation that the incorporation scheme was in place.

If the minister’s decision had been made two months ago, it may not have been as bad, but to make it as soon as combines started rolling is unbelievable timing.

Or is it what the minister wanted? If, and it’s a major if, there is a protest organised, who will be able to go? Surely, we will all be in the fields trying to save our crops.

I’m sure the IFA grain committee, on which I served for six years, has a massive desire to do something, but will the organisation as a whole back it?

I very much doubt it. I was one of the four farmers who spent almost a week in the Department offices to protest for a weather compensation scheme in 2017, and I believe that this issue affects considerably more farmers than before.

We have good people on the committee, but I feel that the rest of the IFA may lack the appetite to turn this into a major protest to help save the tillage sector.

Every time the minister attended tillage meetings, he confirmed his desire to grow the tillage area in Ireland, but this recent move has really shown his true colours. This will be the final nail in the coffin for some of us.

Another question that every farmer should be pondering is why enter into any scheme now? If they can do this with the SIM, they could do it with any other scheme that farmers have signed up to, even after they have completed some of the actions for the scheme.

Are ACRES, the Protein Aid Scheme, TAMS, the Organic Farming Scheme, Knowledge Transfer, SCEP, forestry, Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme or indeed any other schemes safe?

The competence and integrity of the minister and his Department have to be seriously questioned if this decision stands.