Farming
Wicked May left farmers grouchy
IF, as a farmer, you felt a little grouchy over the weather last month, well you had good reason to be . . . as we all endured one of our wettest, coldest and dullest months for years.
It’s only this week that farmers are ‘getting into the run of the summer and the silage season’ as we are getting our best spell of weather since last April – May though was horribly cold and wet too.
Temperatures in Galway were roughly 1.3° Celsius lower than the normal for the month while rainfall of 128.4mms. (over five inches) at the NUI Galway Weather Station, gave us our wettest May since 2009.
The average May temperature recorded at the NUI Galway Automatic Weather Station was 10.1°C – that’s 1.3 degrees below the average for the fifth month of the year in Galway as recorded in Frank Gaffney’s Climate of Galway records.
According to those records the month just gone by was our coldest May since 1996 and our third coldest on record since 1978.
It was a very poor month for grass growth with soil temperatures across most of the West of Ireland again slipping under the 12° Celsius mark – the figure needed for optimum summer growth.
Some dairy farmers had to house their cows during some of the colder and wetter spells in May with milk yields also impacted on.
Galway IFA Dairy Chairman, Charlie Whiriskey, said that farmers on heavier lands were most affected by the poor conditions through May.
“It was a cold and wet month with poor enough growth. The proof is just not there either in the wet grass – we’re all hoping for a bit of a lift through June,” said Charlie Whiriskey.
Although June started on a wicked enough note – with the winds, rain and cold of the Bank Holiday Monday (June 1) – our first decent spell of high pressure has arrived this week, facilitating many first cuts of silage.
Contractors though have reported early cuts of silage to be ‘light enough’, again impacted on by the cold soil conditions that lasted all through May.
To cap off the awful May we had, Met. Éireann also reported that it was also our dullest for many years – Knock Airport in Mayo had its cloudiest fifth month since the weather station opened there in 1996.
Abbeyknockmoy weather recorder, Brendan Geraghty, had his wettest May since 2009 with 4.71 inches of rainfall, nearly double that of the April total.
The three wettest days of the month, he recorded, were the 4th (1.05 inches); the 10th (0.65 inches) and the 2nd (0.59 inches).
“It really was a pretty miserable month. It was wet, cold and dull – there was hardly any growth either, so it wasn’t a good month for the gardener or the farmer.
“I suppose if we have one memory from the month, it’s that of seeing people outdoors, wearing their jackets, caps and gloves. It was a miserable May,” said Brendan Geraghty.
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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