As the minister continues his ambition for more tillage and Irish grain, it looks increasingly likely that 2023 may well be a year of lower national grain yield than 2022.

A combination of a lower tillage area, lower yield potential and still a lot of work to be completed in the northeast and south Wexford all point to a lower national grain output. As the forward price heads closer to €200/t for barley, yield potential becomes increasingly important for farmers.

Costs

Siobhán Walsh suggests farmers need to be really careful managing costs from here on as margins tighten.

Reading the contaminated food byproduct story, it shows how vulnerable the quality assurance schemes are and that they are all only as good as the weakest link in the chain.

We can’t let standards slip on any part of the journey, and while cheap imports might look good value to an individual farmer, if contaminated they can be very damaging to an industry.