Colum McDonnell, IFA National Grain Chairman has said the coming week is critical for this year’s main harvest of 250,000 hectares of winter wheat and spring barley, with the persistent bad weather conditions hampering efforts by growers to harvest the crops.

Commenting on the harvest conditions Mr McDonnell said, “Normally, the winter crops of barley, oats and oilseed rape would have been harvested by now. But the recent heavy rainfall and the deteriorating ground conditions have stalled the harvest, and in some areas, it has turned to a salvage situation. Thundery downpours have led to flash flooding in parts of the country and this has wiped out some crops. ”

Harvesting of the main crop of 2 million tonnes of grain usually begins in mid-August, but the extreme wet weather has delayed it.

“Unless we see a rapid and improved turnaround in weather conditions in the next week, growers are looking at severe yield losses due to high moistures, straw and crop breakdown and difficult ground conditions. Even if the weather does improve, the soil is near saturation and traffic from heavy machinery will lead to serious damage, which will have a knock-on effect for next year’s crop,” said Mr McDonnell.

The declining prospects for harvest, combined with significant increases in input costs and falling prices, will have a severe impact on growers’ profitability this year and will lead to a re-assessment of plans for 2009.

“Two of the main expenditure items; fuel and fertiliser, are up 66% in the last 12 months, adding €250 per hectare to the costs of production. These increases, coupled with a fall in feed grain prices, have created a price/cost squeeze and returns from this year’s harvest will not cover production costs for many growers,” concluded Mr McDonnell.

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