Farming
Organic farmers in West are hit
SMALLER farmers in the West of Ireland have been ‘hammered’ in the new Organic Farmers Scheme announced last week by Minister of State, Tom Hayes.
According to the Organic Farmers Representative Body (OFRB), the failure to front-load payments for smaller farmers is very bad news for the sector in the West of Ireland.
While payments in the new scheme have increased across the board, it has been a ‘one size fits all’ scenario, and OFRB say that it is ‘seriously skewed’ in favour of the bigger farmers.
A change in the payments regime now also means that organic farmers cannot also claim for GLAS on the same area – West of Ireland farmers, on average, won’t have enough ground to claim on under both schemes.
Padraig Finnegan from Williamstown – Chairman of the Organic Farmers’ Representative Body – said that smaller farmers in the West would be ‘hammered’ in the new scheme.
He said that they had set up a meeting with Minister of State at the Dept. of Agriculture, Tom Hayes, to try and resolve issues relating to double funding and frontloading.
“Front-loading of payments for farmers for the first 15 to 20 hectares is absolutely critical from the West of Ireland’s viewpoint.
“The way the scheme is geared at present, it is the ‘big man’ who will be the winner and invariably the vast majority of the smaller organic farmers are in the West of Ireland,” said Padraig Finnegan.
He said that organic farmers were also being hit by exorbitant annual certification costs that had to be reduced as a matter of priority.
“Take for example a small to medium organic farmer with 30 hectares [c. 75 acres] – he will end up with annual certification costs of €600 over the duration of the five years of the scheme, or a total of €3,000. This is just simply way too much,” said Padraig Finnegan.
In the scheme announced last week by Minister of State Tom Hayes, the conversion rate for livestock farmers increases from €212 per hectare to €220 per ha.
The new maintenance rate for livestock increases from €106ha to €170ha. Rates also have increased in the tillage and horticultural sectors. The closing date for the scheme is May 29 next.
At the launch, Minister Hayes said that the Organic Farming Scheme would be a key support measure enabling farmers to ‘avail of the growing market opportunities that clearly exist for organic food’.
“My job is to encourage farmers to avail of these opportunities and by doing so, maximise their potential income. The new scheme offers significantly increased rates of aid to organic farmers, both in conversion and when fully established,” said Minister Hayes.
GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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MINISTER for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue, has been asked to review a decision taken over recent weeks to exclude the sheep farming sector from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR).
East Galway Independent TD, Seán Canney, has called on the Agriculture Minister and Government to ‘revisit’ the issue of sheep farmers and the BAR fund.
Galway IFA Chair, Stephen Canavan, also said that a mistake had been made in terms of excluding the sheep sector from the BAR funding.
“I think that there is no doubt whatsoever that Brexit had a major impact in terms of New Zealand lamb exports flooding the UK market.
“The knock-on affect of that on Irish sheep farmers was a serious fall-back on lamb and hogget prices through the early months of this year.
“There are now serious concerns that the farmers who buy in store lambs through the early autumn period will just pull out of this market after getting such a scalding over the past six months or so,” said Stephen Canavan.
According to Deputy Seán Canney, all of the Regional Group of TDs are backing the move to get the Government to have another look at the use of the BAR fund for the sheep sector.
“The evidence that sheep farming was affected by Brexit is strong and the decision not to support people in this sector needs to be reversed immediately.
“Brexit negotiations began in June 2016 and caused turmoil in the sheep trade as it weakened the currency making UK lamb far more competitive.
“The notion or threat of ‘a no deal ‘ in Brexit caused the price of sheep to fluctuate repeatedly in the trade and resulted in lambs selling for an estimated €30-€50 lower per head each year during the entire Brexit process,” said Deputy Canney.
WITH the exception of Leitrim, Galway was marginally the cheapest county in the west and north-west to buy non-residential farmland during the course of 2022, according to the latest national survey of prices.
The survey showed that the average price of an acre of ‘good land’ in Galway last year, for holdings under 50-acres, was €9,500 – the dearest was Donegal at €12,143 while the cheapest was Leitrim at €6,140 an acre.
Jointly researched by Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCCI) and Teagasc, the survey also indicated that only 0.5% of land in Ireland goes up for sale each year, a major factor in terms of demand for leased land.
‘Good land’ in Mayo [under 50-acres] averaged out at €10,092; the figure for Roscommon was €9,938; with Sligo coming in at €9,550.
When it came to a comparison of poorer quality land in Connacht [under 50-acres], Mayo was the cheapest at €2,886 followed by Leitrim on €3,300 while Galway topped ‘poor land price league’ at €5,375 per acre.
Auctioneer Martin O’Connor of DNG O’Connor, Oughterard, said that the market was being driven by dairy farmers ‘who are continually ranked throughout the survey as the most likely purchasers of land across the country’.
He said that changes in the European Nitrates Directive in relation to improving water quality meant that many dairy farmers needed more land to comply with this directive.
“In order to maintain current levels of milk production – and to comply with the directive – many dairy farms will need to either increase their land area or reduce milk production.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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