As tillage farmers face crisis point, a merchant in the midlands is trying to promote a high inclusion of Irish grain in animal feed.

Martin McDonald of Stradbally Town and Country is now selling a beef ration which is produced with 75% Irish ingredients.

The 14% protein ration contains Irish barley, Irish beans, Irish oats and Irish wheat. Beet pulp is added for fibre, a small amount of soya to bring up protein, molasses, minerals and grain treatments make up the remainder of the ingredients.

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McDonald said the ration is competitive and comes in slightly under the cost of its equivalent ration which has a higher proportion of imported ingredients like maize.

Stradbally Town and Country takes in large amounts of wheat, barley, oats and beans from farmers in Co Laois and supplies that grain and protein to J. Grennan and Sons’ feed mill, which it approached to produce this ration.

Speaking on the development McDonald said: “Something has to be done to improve the uptake of Irish grain in animal feed. It’s disgraceful that some Irish millers are using little or no Irish grain.”

A number of co-ops and merchants have produced Irish rations, but have noted low uptake from livestock farmers.

On that McDonald said: “We’re going to be actively promoting this mix. A lot of our customers are mixed farmers. They have both livestock and cereals on their farms and they see the importance of supporting Irish grain and creating a circular economy.”

IFA grain committee chair Kieran McEvoy said that the IFA has visited merchants “who are genuinely trying to buy and use Irish grain”, but he said “they’re getting hammered by people who have no loyalty to the industry whatsoever” and are running mills off imported grain.

“If everybody had to put some [Irish grain] in it would cause a demand,” he said.