Tirlán to pay €210 for barley and €220 for wheat

The country’s largest buyer of Irish grain has set a green harvest price of €210/t for feed barley and €220/t for feed wheat. The prices include a €10/t trading bonus and standard transport allowances.

Tirlán is paying €258/t for malting barley, €250/t for gluten-free oats, €235/t for standard food grade oats, €250/t for feed beans, €455/t for oilseed rape and €506/t for HEAR oilseed rape.

It is also paying €230/t for contracted winter barley, €220/t for contracted spring barley, €220/t for equine oats (contracted), €200/t for feed oats (uncontracted) and feed price plus €30/t for seed grain. Prices exclude VAT.

Premium

For the first time, over 50% of Tirlan’s 173,000t green grain intake has qualified for premium crop payments, amounting to over €3m in premiums for quality and value-added grains.

Tirlán chair John Murphy said: “The 2024 season saw significant growth in Tirlán's premium grain portfolio, with an emphasis on high-value crops such as gluten-free oats and HEAR oilseed rape, benefiting farmers with higher returns.”

Trading bonus

The trading bonus scheme continues in 2024, offering €10/t for all eligible grain supplied, subject to the minimum tillage input criteria. Murphy said that the bonus is a recognition of the loyalty of the co-op’s tillage farmers.

However, as announced on 6 February, the grain trading bonus will also be paid to non-shareholders for 2024 harvested crops in recognition of the challenging weather conditions and higher input costs facing farmers who supply their grain to the co-op.

Malt

He highlighted the recent announcement by the Malting Company of Ireland (MCI), which is planning to invest in its Cork facility in the coming months.

“The planned investment will expand MCI’s malt output by 60% to a projected 52,000t per year and will require an additional 25,000t of malting barley, generating significant grain price premiums for Tirlán tillage farmers.”

MCI, which is a 50/50 joint venture between Tirlán and Dairygold, contracts some 40,000t of malting barley every year to produce 32,000t of malt for the Irish and international brewing and distilling industries.

Tirlán harvest 2024 grain prices

(Price per tonne, excluding VAT)