Budget support essential for tillage farmers under pressure
Tillage farmers will hope to see the Government parties Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael deliver on their pre-election promises to provide €60m/year to the sector.
Tillage incomes are under sustained pressure due to Irish and global pressures. \ Donal O'Leary
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With the Government expected to deliver a cautious budget next week, the hope and expectation of the tillage sector is that ministers Jack Chambers, Paschal Donohoe and Martin Heydon will deliver on their parties’ pre-election manifestos of delivering €60m per year in supports for the tillage sector.
Tillage incomes are under sustained pressure due to Irish and global pressures. Teagasc economist Fiona Thorne recently highlighted that growers of spring barley, the country’s largest cereal crop, have lost money on it in five out of the last 10 years.
Nitrates uncertainty is ramping up demand for quality land, with dairy farmers outbidding their tillage counterparts. The low level of native grain use in feed rations is disappointing.
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The 2025 planting levels of 344,000ha are still a long way short of the Government’s own target of 400,000ha by 2030. Solid support in next week’s budget would give tillage farmers a much-needed boost, but it must not come at the expense of other sectors.
On pages 28-29 and 67, Lorcan Roche-Kelly and Darren Carty examine how agriculture’s share of the national budget has fallen, and what schemes are in the spotlight for Budget 2026.
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With the Government expected to deliver a cautious budget next week, the hope and expectation of the tillage sector is that ministers Jack Chambers, Paschal Donohoe and Martin Heydon will deliver on their parties’ pre-election manifestos of delivering €60m per year in supports for the tillage sector.
Tillage incomes are under sustained pressure due to Irish and global pressures. Teagasc economist Fiona Thorne recently highlighted that growers of spring barley, the country’s largest cereal crop, have lost money on it in five out of the last 10 years.
Nitrates uncertainty is ramping up demand for quality land, with dairy farmers outbidding their tillage counterparts. The low level of native grain use in feed rations is disappointing.
The 2025 planting levels of 344,000ha are still a long way short of the Government’s own target of 400,000ha by 2030. Solid support in next week’s budget would give tillage farmers a much-needed boost, but it must not come at the expense of other sectors.
On pages 28-29 and 67, Lorcan Roche-Kelly and Darren Carty examine how agriculture’s share of the national budget has fallen, and what schemes are in the spotlight for Budget 2026.
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