CEREAL FARMERS face severe financial problems this year according to tillage expert Jim O’Mahony at the Teagasc Cereals Open Day in Kildalton, Co Kilkenny.
Not only has the area under cereals shrunk from 390,500 hectares last year to 243,000 hectares this year. Farmers also face a dramatic fall in what they will receive for their grain.
This has been compounded by what at best will be “a moderate” harvest in terms of yields.
The Teagasc tillage programme manager said it was his opinion Irish cereal farmers, who have been the most productive in the world in terms of yield over recent years, will have to rely heavily this year on EU farm supports.
Mr O’Mahony said cereal prices which are dictated by the global market place, look as if they will fall by up to 80 per cent of what farmers received in the bumper year of 2007.
“The prices being talked about are very low and while we will not have a full picture until the American and Australian crops are harvested, prices look as if they are going to be very low,” he said.
He said the expected take up of crops for energy had waned and there were less than 4,000 hectares of oilseed rape being grown here this year.
One group of energy crop producers, the JHM Crops group in Co Limerick, expressed satisfaction yesterday at the doubling of the target for miscanthus (elephant grass) crops here by 2012. Joe Horgan, managing director of the group, welcomed the Government announcement of the doubling of the crop in three years.