Farming in Tipperary through the pandemic - Teagasc advices

Tipperary farmers like everybody else in society have faced significant challenges in recent months in managing through the Covid-19 lockdown.  

Along with the challenge of the global pandemic, there have been negative consequences for farm product prices as well as the prospect of a significant drought.  

Through the good efforts of the general population and in particular our frontline workers, the country is making great progress in curtailing the Covid 19 pandemic.  

Farmers and all their service providers are keen to get back to normal activities as quickly as possible.  

Food production is an essential service across the globe and farmers have taken advantage of the excellent weather and long days over the past two months to complete farm operations.  

Like everybody else, farmers had to adapt to social distancing and the lack of social contact while continuing to be very busy on the farm.  

Throughout this period, farmers along with their advisors have continued to participate in discussion groups through conference and zoom calls, while sharing business and technical solutions which resulted in some welcome social contact.  

It was also an opportunity to make the digital jump with on-line activities and all BPS and BEAM applications being submitted before mid-May.  

Farm product prices have come under pressure.

A new report by Teagasc economists predicts that in most scenarios income in 2020 and 2021 will drop relative to earlier forecasts.   

This is largely due to fall in demand because of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

 While retail business in supermarkets has increased significantly, it doesn’t compensate for the falloff in the service sector which has taken place across the globe.  

This is putting downward pressure on commodity prices as there is always a significant lag in the speed of supply response to changes in demand in food production. 

  Like all businesses, farmers need to carefully plan and carry out sensitivity analysis on any planned investments over the next two years.

Many farms are now showing significant signs of drought with 70mm soil deficit in most parts of the county.  

From a livestock point of view, the main priority is to maintain grazing rotation of about 24 days or 4% of the farm per day. 

 The key is to act now and take whatever short term measures are required to avoid running out of grass.   Growth will be significantly below demand until the rain arrives.

  It is better to feed a ration at this stage rather than using up silage stocks which could be scarce later on. 

  On the tillage front, winter crops are promising while spring crops and later sown crops such as maize and beet need rain.