A weather battering

Well readers, it’s September and that means it’s ‘ploughing’ time! The National Ploughing Championships this month signals a short winding down of a busy – and very stressful, at times – farming year. It provides a well-earned break, an occasion to meet friends, neighbours, and farming peers for a day at least! 

It has been an eventful year so far. Let’s recap. This summer, Ireland has experienced wildfires like never before, likewise in Europe and other parts of the world. Meanwhile, earthquakes and floods have dominated other countries – and still, some people think we don’t have a climate problem?

We started out with a mixed spring. Crops were planted and while winter crops performed well, grass grew a bit slower than usual. Our weather was mixed but we worked with it.

Then there was no rainfall worth talking about. First-cut silage happened in record time. The weather started getting finer then came one of the earliest harvests I have seen in my lifetime; forage harvesters lifting silage in one field, combines cutting winter barley in another. It was a case of the grain trailer meeting the grass trailer. Then, it stopped raining and we had one of the most serious and prolonged droughts ever. As I travelled around the country and took stock of the condition of fields as I passed by them, I couldn’t tell the difference between a grass field and a stubble field as they both looked the same.

So what does this mean as we head into autumn and await the winter? Well, silage pits have to be open to feed dairy stock and cattle – more cost! Yields are back and will be back as potato and vegetable crops suffer from the drought. Food prices will rise and consumers will feel the pinch. Long term, I think farmers will have to decide, as our climate changes, what crops will be grown in the future.

On the back of all this, tractor and machinery sales are holding their own. Dealers are finding that farmers and contractors are getting on with things, but they are being cautious and that’s to be expected. Some machinery manufacturers are taking a look at their balance sheets and focusing on the markets as they stand, and where they are going across Europe and the world. Maybe some decisions to be made there. 

Farming has taken a weather battering on top of low commodity prices; confidence is low in the farming world at the moment, uncertainty is high! We have a growing world population and we still need to feed that population, but there seems to be more and more obstacles getting in the way of doing that. Right now, they are weather and climate-change related.

As mentioned at the start of my column, The Ploughing will be on soon, and there is plenty to see at this year’s event, which is shaping up to be a cracker! I think everyone deserves to take a breather and leave the problems at the farm gate for a day. I know I am looking forward to it, as I am sure you all are! See you there, my friends. 

Until next month, farm safely, farm wisely.