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The Government should deliver a scheme for tillage farmers to grow catch crops after this year’s harvest, according to Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association (ICSA) tillage chair Gavin Carberry.
“A similar scheme was run in 2018 whereby tillage farmers were incentivised to produce additional feed during the autumn months.
“It is vital that we start preparing now for the winter ahead and given the concerns around the cost and availability of meal, such an incentive would encourage tillage farmers to actively engage in the fodder market,” said Carberry.
Proposed incentive
As part of the scheme which it is calling for Government to introduce, the ICSA is proposing an incentive of €250/ha for tillage farmers who grow a temporary crop of short-rotation grasses for fodder production over the winter months and €200/ha for those who grow catch crops, capped at 50ha for each.
Gavin Carberry said the initiative could provide significant additional fodder for the livestock sector at a time when the affordability and availability of meal for the winter is so uncertain.
The ICSA tillage chair said: “We need to actively encourage more partnerships between the tillage and livestock sectors.
“Tillage farmers can partner up with either drystock or dairy farmers to provide fast-growing forage like Westerwolds or Italian ryegrass, as well as catch crops such as fodder rape and stubble turnips, all of which would be invaluable to livestock farmers come the winter.”
He claimed that for livestock farmers, “such partnerships provide opportunities to plan for winter feeding in the knowledge that feed supplies will be available and be available at a reasonable cost”.
‘Time is of the essence’
Carberry said “time is of the essence” and the “sooner such a scheme could be announced, the better”.
“To give merchants the opportunity to ensure seed availability and for farmers to set up partnerships we need to act now. Potentially we are staring at a massive fodder crisis later in the year, the impact of which would be catastrophic,” he said.
He called for all farming sectors to “work in tandem” to meet the “challenges ahead”.
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