A ‘late Spring’ but recent spell of fine weather was a welcome boost for grain growers

A SLOW Spring has sprung to life since the Easter Weekend with thousands of acres of corn being sown across Co. Galway in close to ideal conditions.

Galway IFA Grain Committee Chairman, John Daly from Kilconnell (pictured above) said that while it had been a slow start to the sowing season, most corn should be in the ground over the next week or so.

“The ground had been very cold up until the last week or so and this meant that it was a late Spring but conditions have been very good since Easter with a lot of sowing completed in the past week,” said John Daly.

Spring barley and oats, along with some winter crops, continue to be the ‘bread and butter’ for corn growers in the West, although according to John Daly, the acreage is probably down a bit this year.

“There is a lot of competition for land and prices have been depressed enough over the past couple of seasons. The grain business tends to go in cycles, and at the moment, we’re just in one of our troughs,” said John Daly.

Last year, John Daly stored, rolled and sold his barley and oats from the farmgate with a huge demand from dairy and cattle farmers, especially for the rolled barley.

“Everyone is looking at costs now and being able to purchased rolled barley for €180 to €190 a tonne represents good value for the feeders, but this isn’t a practical option for a lot of grain growers,” said John Daly.

Higher input costs – especially in the area of fertiliser (up €35 per tonne) – have also made grain growing a far tighter financial operation this year, although the late Spring should have little impact on yields.

“Really that ground should be made up through the summer season – what most growers are hoping for is a lift in prices but that’s out of their control,” said John Daly.

Grain growing in Galway varies in size from 30 to 40 acres as far up as 400/500 acres, although competition for conacre land has stepped up a lot over the past year or so.