Time to think of next Winter’s feed
START planning ahead now for the winter feeding season of 2022/23 – that’s the advice from a Galway IFA representative as some fertiliser prices edge close to the €1,000 a tonne mark.
Dairy farmer and Galway IFA Environment Representative, Henry Walsh, told the Farming Tribune that the long-term worry as regards fertiliser price and supply, was the impact it could have on next winter’s feed supplies.
“Everyone will get through the summer period okay but the worry is that with less fertiliser use, there will be a scarcer supply of winter feed by next Autumn.
“There’s an awful lot of uncertainty out there about how fertiliser prices will pan out over the coming month and also about their supply and availability,” said Henry Walsh.
Although natural gas prices – one of the big cost drivers in fertiliser production – have dropped significantly since before Christmas, they are still around three times higher than they were this time last year.
According to Henry Walsh, a limited supply of urea is being bought at around €920/€930 per tonne with protected urea very difficult to source.
He said that 18.6.12 had been sold at around €775 per tonne but added that this price was likely to increase when new stocks arrived in the country over the coming weeks and months.
“Farmers need to plan ahead now for next Winter. They need to test their land for lime; make the absolute maximum use of every drop of slurry they have; and maybe in cases even consider a modest reduction in stock numbers,” said Henry Walsh. Countries like Russia, he added, were restricting exports of fertiliser on the basis of conserving supplies for themselves.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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