They speak about the luck of the Irish – but when it comes to their farming sector I think there’s something more than simple good fortune at play.

For, while we’re maybe feeling mildly content that we’ve recently had at least a small window of good weather to give our crops the chance to make up a bit of ground after their delayed sowing, our cousins in the Irish Republic have not only been offered the promise of a speedy emergency aid package to compensate them for the tough spring – but, stating that they are not satisfied with the amount they’ve been offered, they are currently in the process of haggling to get this additional support substantially increased.

The Irish Farmers Association, their equivalent of the NFU, is claiming that there is no question that what they term their tillage sector is fighting for its very future:

“Tillage farmers have faced a perfect storm since summer 2023, with falling grain prices; input costs remaining high; loss of rented land; and heavy rainfall right up until the middle of April this year.

"Thankfully, the weather has improved in recent weeks, but the delay in planting this spring will hit tillage incomes hard in 2024,” according to the IFA.

And while the €100/ha payment to arable growers being offered by the Irish Government is being welcomed as a 'step forward in addressing the need for immediate financial support' the IFA is calling for this to be raised to a €250 per ha, five-year payment for their arable growers.

Cropping area shrunk

With Ireland’s arable sector highly reliant on short term rented lets, the growth in the country’s dairy sector has resulted in considerable competition for such land, with the net result being the arable cropping area has shrunk – with a 60% reduction in the number of farmers growing crops since the mid 1990s.

“Challenges in the tillage sector extend beyond the need for government funding in 2024,” said the IFA’s cereal chair, Kieran McEvoy, commenting on the recent publication of a major 70-page government report into how the area and performance of the cropping sector could be increased.

“It is welcome to see the report identify the urgent need for actions to drive preferential use of native feed grains and facilitate the movement of organic manure onto tillage farms.

"These actions are important in helping to underpin the future sustainability of the tillage sector.

“It’s vital that actions identified in the report are implemented swiftly to prevent terminal damage to the tillage sector,” said McEvoy.

With the prospect of any aid for our own arable sector being less than slim, you’ve got to ask how have farmers only a short hop over the Irish Sea managed not only to get their government on-board for additional aid, but also to have spent the last year drawing together a plan for actively encouraging an increase in grain production in the country?

Environmental credentials

The Irish Government said that the report was drawn together to identify opportunities to help improve the efficiency and long-term competitiveness of the country’s arable sector along with actions that would allow it to further improve its environmental credentials.

And the report recommends that an immediate financial support package be put in place for the sector for the 2024 growing season as one of 28 main proposals to boost cereal production.

“A vibrant and sustainable tillage sector is hugely important in increasing our food and feed security while also contributing to our climate change objectives,” said farm minister, Charlie McConalogue.

“I am very aware of the challenges faced by tillage growers this year, and in response I announced last month my commitment to seek a €100/ha payment for field crops planted for this year’s harvest.

“I am committed to the sector and its importance within the wider agricultural industry, and I want to put the sector on a firm footing into the future,” he concluded.

Long-term support

As well as the immediate introduction of emergency payments, the report also calls for a new Tillage Expansion and Sustainability Scheme to replace the Tillage Incentive Scheme, in order to provide longer-term support with an environmental focus.

It also calls for an extension to a range of capital investment schemes currently available under the sector’s modernisation plan along with a full examination of the impacts of support measures on the evolving economic viability of the sector.

Developing industry-led initiatives that support the economic and environmental sustainability of tillage growers should also be encouraged according to the report as well as developing industry initiatives that drive positive sustainability actions on tillage farms. And, perhaps crucially it’s explicitly recognised that any added value introduced through sustainability measures should be shared equitably across the supply chain – starting with the grower.

Other important recommendations include optimising the budget which already exists for measures to increase the level of straw incorporation on arable farms, with the aim of reaching 55,000ha by 2030 – while at the same time remembering the balancing of the scheme’s ambition for soil health benefits with the high demand for straw from the livestock and mushroom sectors.

Exchange of manure

And the all-important interactions between the country’s arable and livestock sectors have been further highlighted by a recommendation that the measures are put in place to help and encourage the exchange of organic manure between livestock and tillage farmers.

Standing alongside this will be an investigation into how the preferential use of Irish feed grain and protein could be driven, while also exploiting opportunities for value-added Irish feed and an analysis to establish the impact of using Irish-produced feed on the sustainability of the livestock sectors. And to encourage the use of home-grown grains and proteins, the Irish food board is to draw up additional sustainable sourcing criteria for auditing at feed mills under the quality assurance scheme for feed while publicising relevant independent research confirming the nutritional and sustainability value of Irish feed ingredients across the feed industry.

But what is also worth noting is the fact that not only was the report drawn up within 12 months, but that the proposals are to be put into swift effect.

Meanwhile, despite the fact that in Scotland the Farmer Led Group on the arable sector drew up a concise report which contained a blueprint with a list of practical recommendations over the course of a three-month period, the document has been sitting on a shelf gathering dust for more than three years now – and we still don’t know what our main support system is going to be, let alone being offered any juicy carrots to encourage us to increase production.