“Tillage is not in meltdown.” This was one of the opening remark by Irish Farmers Journal columnist Gerald Potterton at the recent ITLUS conference. This is not to suggest that things are good, he said, because low prices and high costs are murdering profitability. “We are a long way from the golden years of the late 1970s,” he said.

Prices appeared much higher and costs were lower back then but the sector also had additional crop options through Irish Sugar and Erin Foods. These industries brought a lot to the economy in terms of crop growing, machinery development, transport, soil fertility, etc.

Back then, Armer was the only Irish manufacturer exporting machinery and spraying was done using high-pressure and cab-less tractors. How things have changed. Flour production virtually ceased also and, bit by bit, the fresh vegetable industry faded.

The story of the past two decades was of fewer viable crop options and decreased profitability across the sector. But we did witness huge technological progress over the past 30 years and this helped hide some of the pain.

Gerald recalled the arrival of Roundup and the fact that its cost at that time forced growers to keep it under the bed at night for fear of theft by scutchy neighbours.

He described the arrival of plant growth regulators as making a very significant contribution to productivity. The relative safety that they provided against lodging enabled growers to push harder on the accelerator (nitrogen). But it was not the only great development as fungicide after fungicide enabled improved disease control.

The arrival of the strobilurins set a whole new level of expectation for septoria control but, alas, nature intervened and resistance dealt a huge blow to this very efficient family of chemistry. That was not the first time we encountered disease resistance in fungicides, and it won’t be the last. Resistance also became a cause of concern in the control of weeds and insects.

In the late 1970s and 1980s, minimum tillage and direct drilling came to the fore but grass weeds proved a significant challenge. The arrival of the one-pass was one of the big innovations. The early units were homemade using different combinations but the arrival of the piggyback systems led to an almost complete changeover to this planting method.

Challenge of the lobbyist

For many years we have complained about bureaucracy in the EU, the regulations it continues to impose and the challenges they represent to farming. However, “democracy is now a bigger challenge than bureaucracy” according to the IFA’s general secretary Damian McDonald.

In conversation with the ITLUS president, Tim O’Donovan of Seedtech, Damian explained that the arrival of politicians into the decision arena has muddied the process considerably. This was most evident in the long saga of glyphosate reregistration. Politicians and representatives of politically constrained governments acted to prevent agreement.

These and other issues make it increasingly challenging to represent all farmers, Damian said. This is a fact of life in today’s world but he believes that there is still more strength in big numbers than small. He acknowledges the challenges and difficulty in doing this and said that the IFA must still strive to have a single voice representing farmers.

Asked about the main challenges facing the association in the years ahead, Damian talked about four main issues:

  • Brexit.
  • CAP reform.
  • Mercosur.
  • Climate change.

    • While these may appear to be separate and standalone, it is highly likely that CAP and climate change will become increasingly intertwined. Damian said that farming lobbyists in Brussels are now outnumbered 6:1 by environmentalists and that brings huge change.

    He went on to say that the UN sustainable development goals now form the backdrop to all policy. He commented that teh current official US attitudes to climate have reinvigorated climate change activists and they are now stronger than ever.

    Because of this, he thinks it is likely that measures proven to be of benefit to the environment may receive direct reward in the next CAP. But the bigger question is if the marketplace will provide a reward for the primary producer.

    As for the future, Gerald questioned farmer attitude to the return of a sugar industry. He suggested that time has moved on and that sugar is increasingly receiving negative press. However, an increased emphasis on provenance and truly Irish continues to provide potential opportunity, along with the huge economic infrastructure around the business. But it would have to be profitable for producers to make it a real proposition.

    Hybrid wheat varieties may have something to offer in the future but the prognosis for chemical control tools is much less exciting, given recent experiences and trends. “There will always be a tillage sector in Ireland as we have the yield potential to remain relevant,” Gerald believes. Prices have been lower in the past but land rental costs are now a huge barrier to profit.

    The future is exciting. There will always be new innovations to watch out for.

    He wonders how long it will take for swarms of drones to be realistic or if driverless tractors might become commonplace. Physical machinery size remains a worry as he sees care for the soil as being key to future survival.