THE ACREAGE of farmland going under the plough is expected to increase substantially this year, it emerged at the National Tillage Conference in Carlow yesterday.
Tillage farmers who had experienced a couple of very difficult years, in terms of harvesting their crops and then receiving poor prices for grain, have seen their fortunes reverse this year.
A ban by the Russian government on wheat exports because much of the Russian crop was destroyed by drought has led to an upsurge in prices being paid for grain this autumn.
This has put new confidence in the tillage sector, as has the news that Russia has not been able to plant enough wheat this autumn to make up for current losses.
Teagasc tillage specialist Michael Hennessy said he expected a recovery in the area of tillage planted this year because of the more optimistic outlook.
“If we get reasonable weather in the next few weeks, I would expect to see winter wheat plantings increasing from 55,000 to 75,000 hectares,” he said.
He was also expecting winter barley plantings to increase to 25,000 hectares from its baseline some years ago of 10,000 hectares.
There had been a substantial increase in the amount of oilseed rape already planted for next year and the number of hectares going under the plough could double.
“While farmers found it quite easy to harvest their grains this year, yields were not that good in some of the spring planted crops,” Mr Hennessy said.
“Also, some of the crops planted last winter were hit by either flooding or frost but in general, it is a good story for tillage farmers this year.”
He said the levels of profit cereal that farmers could make would also depend on the price being charged for fertiliser and by those renting them land, as 40 per cent of tillage land was rented.