Old-style meadow lettings are making a comeback this year, with more farmers opting to let land for silage or hay rather than buying expensive cattle.

Mitchelstown auctioneer Eamonn O’Brien said he had received a number of calls from farmers who are reluctant to invest “big money in cattle” and were doing short-term lets for silage or hay instead.

The general run of the price is around €150/ac for silage ground that will be ready to cut by the end of May if fertilised now. The person taking the land has to fertilise it, O’Brien said.

Where farmers are taking a second cut of silage off the land, the price increases by a further €100/ac.

Farmers are letting out-farms in many cases, O’Brien explained.

“They don’t want to buy expensive cattle, they can get good money to let the land for the summer, they hold the maps and have the after-grass,” he explained.

Tom Crosse of GVM said it was still early in the year to be talking about “meadowing” but he said there was strong demand from dairy farmers who are currently tight for grass. He said fertilised meadows for silage or hay should make €200/ac.

Kilkenny auctioneer Joe Coogan said it was coming to decision time for a lot of farmers.

“Either they buy cattle or let the land,” he explained.

Coogan claimed that silage lettings in Kilkenny were generally making around €150/ac.

“This is for one cut [of silage], in and out, no maps,” the Castlecomer-based auctioneer said.

Rental market

Coogan said the land rental market remained buoyant, with €410/ac and €340/ac paid for con-acre lettings of two holdings in Laois and north Kilkenny recently.

A 60ac holding in Luggacurran made the higher price, with a 30ac property near Castlecomer making the €340/ac.

A 26ac farm at Jenkinstown outside Kilkenny city is also being let by Coogan.

It is for a 15-year term and Coogan believes it will make €450-500/ac. It goes to auction on 17 April.