THOUSANDS OF acres of the winter oats crop were destroyed by the bad weather in December, causing major losses to the specialist growers for the porridge and the horse industry.
Tillage farmers are estimated to have planted up to 12,000 hectares of the crop last autumn. They used seed which was developed for spring sowing but had been performing well in winter conditions here for more than 30 years.
However, this winter, according to Tim O’Donovan, a tillage specialist with Teagasc, the heavy frosts caused major damage to the crop across the country, from Louth to Cork. On average, more than 50 per cent of the crop had been destroyed, he said at the Teagasc national tillage conference in Carlow.
“South Tipperary was hit hardest where up to 90 per cent of the crop was destroyed. Hard hit too was Kilkenny and Carlow with losses up to 90 per cent there as well . . . I estimate most of the growers have lost €80 an acre and are now faced with the decision of whether or not to replant spring oats or go with some other cereal.
A major problem facing growers was the lack of seed, especially the Barra variety, which was in short supply.
He said the porridge industry would be less hard hit than oats for the equine industry as most of the oats for manufacturers such as Flahavans came from the spring-planted oat crop.
The conference heard that cereal farmers had a very good year in 2010 after two disastrous years and this year promised also to be good. It was also told that grain farmers would be able to sell their crops in advance of harvest in a growing futures market in cereals.