The improvement in the weather has come too late to enable many Irish farmers to avoid fodder shortages this winter, the Irish Farmers Association said yesterday.
Mr John Dillon, deputy president, said livestock and tillage farmers in Kerry, Limerick and Cork are facing severe difficulties. He predicted there would be a severe fodder problem along the west coast from Cork to Donegal, as well as in Sligo and Leitrim and the Border counties.
Grass growth had improved in recent weeks but the land was still far too wet to allow animals to graze it, especially on non-limestone soils, he said. Tillage and grain harvesting had fallen far behind and yields would be lower all round and the moisture content of grain would be very high. The IFA was demanding that advance premium payments should be increased from 60 per cent to 90 per cent and brought forward from November 1st to October 1st.
It is also seeking to have headage payments brought forward from September/October to the second half of August, and the payment made to grain farmers brought forward from October 15th to September.
The organisation is calling on the Government to secure or guarantee full ferry access to EU markets for livestock, the reopening of the beef carcass trade to Iran and a relaxation of the seven-county Russian ban on Irish beef.
Mr Dillon said the IFA will ask the Department of Agriculture to undertake a full assessment of the situation and was demanding that the banks adopt a sympathetic attitude towards weather-related problems. The organisation had arranged meetings with the banks to discuss this.