Weather Takes Big Toll on Tillage Planting
Issued 5thApril 2001
Poor weather in recent weeks has greatly disrupted the sowing of tillage crops, according to a leading Teagasc specialist.
Paddy Browne, Chief Tillage Adviser with Teagasc, said there is still 80% of the spring's cereals acreage, a total of 300,000 acres, to be planted and just 2% of the country's 80,000 acres of sugar beat has been sown.
"This is the latest spring in more than 10 years for the tillage sector. It has been compounded by an already serious situation in winter cereals acreage where, last autumn, the wettest back-end on record resulted in a 50% reduction in the acreage of winter cereals", he said.
"The foot and mouth restrictions have also contributed to the late spring, with farmers reluctant to engage the services of contractors due to the risk involved in moving machinery from farm to farm", he added.
Paddy Browne said a sustained spell of good weather over the coming two weeks will enable farmers to make up the back-log. However, late sowing is likely to result in reduced yields in both cereals and sugar beat. Sowing of the 30,000 acres of potatoes has not yet reached crisis point as the main sowing season is not until early May.
He said the irony of the current situation is that, with the right weather over the coming weeks, we run the risk of exceeding the acreage of cereals allowed by the EU for direct payments.
"The National Base Area is the maximum area on which EU payments are made to farmers. Since the system was introduced in 1993, we have never exceeded the 345,000 hectares (850,000 acres) allowed".
However the twin BSE and Foot and Mouth problems may entice some farmers to switch from beef to tillage. There is also likely to be an increase in the amount of "set-aside" tillage land", he said.
He said farmers growing maize as an animal feed would be the major casualties, if our National Base Area was exceeded.
"EU support for maize growing could be reduced. This would have an impact on acreage of this crop which has shown a ten fold increase to 40,000 acres nationally in recent years", he said.
