Climate change is making farming more difficult for all sectors.
Grass growth is being affected by extreme weather events, with the drought of 2026 seeing average grass growth decline.
The five-year average grass growth on dairy farms using Pasture Base is now 12.5t/ha. These farms are likely focused on grassland management as they input into the programme. The target is 14t to 15t/ha. There is a deficit.
This year, many farmers decided to fill that deficit with palm kernel expeller (PKE).
The panel at this year’s Tillage Day discussing using Irish grain to feed Irish cows all agreed that palm kernel was not a good option from a marketing point of view.
PKE is being used to replace forage in the diet, so is there an opportunity for tillage farmers to grow more forage crops to fill this gap? The opportunity will obviously only come if it is profitable for both sides.
Reality
The reality is homegrown forage can be high yielding, excellent quality, reduce the carbon footprint of livestock farms if replacing many imported ingredients and be easy to access.
Finbar Mulligan of UCD said: “I think there would be a role to consider Irish grown forages. Is there a case that farms could have a pit of whole crop wheat or whole crop barley as a contingency for that six- or eight-week period in the summer where many farmers are currently importing palm kernel?
“The question I would have is how would that truly fit with the grass-fed standard if everybody did it. Surely, Irish homegrown forage, grown on our native soil, is better than importing palm kernel,” he commented.
More research is needed into the use of these forages in livestock diets, but there are opportunities to benefit both sides – a lower carbon footprint, high-yielding crops and exporting of nutrients to improve water quality.
Forage rye is a good example which can be grown over winter and harvested in the spring time before a crop of maize even.
As grass growth declines and the grass-fed standard becomes harder to meet, the question also needs to be asked as to why whole crop barley, wheat or maize silage cannot be included as grass under the standard?
They are part of the grass family and, as whole crop, are not being harvested for grain.
Tillage Day was organised by the Irish Farmers Journal and supported by the Irish Seed Trade Association.
