GRAIN prices must make a recovery in order for tillage farming to survive, according to the IFA.
With the main harvest of spring barley, wheat and oats totaling 225,000 hectares underway, IFA President John Bryan insisted that a sustained recovery in grain prices is necessary for tillage farming’s survival.
It is understood that the quality of the winter barley crop of 28,000 hectares is excellent, but yields are back 10% because of the extreme weather late last year and during the Spring.
“Tillage farmers have come through two of the most difficult harvests for decades having had to contend with the extremes of weather during the 2008 harvest and prices that were significantly below the cost of production last year,” said Mr Bryan.
“No sector can survive a negative income situation for three years in a row,” he added.