Tough times for farmers

It is deeply unsettling to hear animals cry out in hunger. That sound was heard all too frequently in recent months to the great distress of the farmers concerned. Thankfully, the worst has passed. Most animals now have access to fresh grass as a late Spring gives way to a cool summer. It has been a difficult and expensive time for farmers, with elevated animal fatalities. And the threat of a winter fodder shortage remains.

Poor weather in 2012 affected both the quantity and quality of available winter fodder. Cold easterly winds early this year compounded that situation and pushed back grass growth by four to five weeks. With animals starving, co-operatives and banks, farming organisations and Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney pulled together to import some 30,000 tonnes of fodder and provide emergency loans to pay for it and for concentrated feed. The loss of silage this year could translate into another shortage. With that in mind, nitrate regulations have been relaxed and farmers are being encouraged to concentrate on late fodder production.

Farming is a weather-dependent activity and its practitioners have good and bad years. They also have the most effective lobbying organisations in the State. Good times are barely acknowledged by these bodies and bad times bring strident demands. A proposal that an emergency EU fund should be made available to compensate farmers affected by the fodder shortage was unrealistic and was rejected. But Mr Coveney has undertaken to bring forward end-of-year EU payments to October in order to minimise the financial impact.

In recent years, farmers have done well. The Central Statistics Office estimated that, for 2010 and 2011 alone, family farm incomes grew by seventy per cent. At the same time, farmers contributed one per cent of income taxes in 2012. Their income tax contribution actually fell between 2008 and 2011. International agricultural prices have remained high and the outlook for Irish farming in 2013 is positive. That is good news. Farming is one of our most important indigenous industries, generating almost 8 per cent of added value and employment. Plans to increase dairy production by fifty per cent over the next decade and to raise all outputs by one-third have been drawn up. They are extremely ambitious targets.

It is in that context that the Irish Farmers Association has opposed changes to the Common Agricultural Policy that would introduce minimum payments per hectare for all farmland. Single farm payments in Ireland are based on historic outputs from 2000 to 2002, with the great bulk of subsidies going to the top producers. Reforms favoured by the EU Parliament and the Commission would benefit less intensive farmers. Final decisions are unlikely to emerge until the end of next month.