‘Too easy for mills to go to the port’

It’s too easy for feed mills to buy imported grain over native Irish grain, according to Denn Feeds agronomist Kevin Looby. There should be a minimum inclusion rate for Irish grain in animal feed, he told the Irish Farmers Journal’s Crop Tour this week.

Denn Feeds supplies coarse rations and has a cubing plant supplying farmers with feed in Waterford, Cork and Kilkenny.

“All of the grain used in the mill [Denn Feeds] is 100% Irish grain,” Looby said.

“That’s a guarantee. It’s either bought locally at harvest - green, dried and stored inside - or else bought off farmers who dry and store their own during the winter. “The problem is for the likes of Denns, and plenty others who buy grain off the combine, Irish grain, we don’t get rewarded for it. You don’t get anymore euros per tonne for your grain for the investment in the stainless steel and the sheds and the driers,” he added.

“It’s just too easy for other mills and other grain buyers to go to the port and collect it in a lorry with very little traceablility, an awful lot less traceability than we have here and possibly grown to lower standards than we have.”

Looby believes there should be a minimum inclusion rate of native grain in animal feeds under the Bord Bia Quality Assurance Scheme.

“It doesn’t have to be a big figure. It only has to be 5-6% to create a bit of a base and a floor.

“It’s not going to add €100/t to the price of grain, but it might add €20-30/t, which is what the sector needs to keep it afloat,” he said.

“Currently all other sectors are going reasonably well, tillage is the one that is facing the big challenges due to the cost and the price and it needs to survive for us all and for the country as a whole.”

You can view videos from the Crop Tour by scanning this QR code.