Farmers have been urged to continue to plant winter wheat where possible as the country faces an “unprecedented” seed shortage, head of crops knowledge transfer at Teagasc Michael Hennessy has said.

“For any grower who has the capability of getting a bit of wheat in, they should be absolutely trying to do it. The same goes for second wheat,” he said.

With approximately 30,000ha to 40,000ha fewer winter cereals in so far compared to 2023, there will be high demand for spring cereal seed, which is in short supply following last year’s difficult harvest where there were issues with seed quality and yield.

At present, it looks like there is a shortage of approximately 40,000ha of spring cereal seed in Ireland.

Imports

He added there are issues with seed all the way across northern Europe, so imports are not freely available.

“I don’t think this has ever happened. It’s unprecedented,” he said.

He said it could be the case that growers could be left without spring cereal seed. He urged tillage farmers to look at other crop options.

He added that having too much spring barley will cause logistical issues on farms and growers should consider slots like second wheat. He asked growers to prioritise planting winter wheat from early January until the end of February, explaining that there is plenty of Irish winter seed available.