Farmers were already chopping straw this week, when the Minister for Agriculture moved to suspend the Straw Incorporation Measure for 2024. Harvest kicked off last week for many and those who have chopped under the scheme, face uncertainty around payment.

On Tuesday, Pádraig Connery a tillage farmer in Co Waterford said that he had enough straw to fulfil his customers’ needs and he turned on the chopper. He had rung around to ensure all orders were in and was then chopping a field of winter barley straw, which had large patches, 6-7ac in total, missing from where a flood had saturated the field after planting in October.

“We’re looking at €180/t for barley and fighting the weather,” he said, adding that this insurance payment is now gone.

He has 30ha in the scheme between oats and barley and it’s worth over €7,000 to him this year, but that income, which he thought was guaranteed, now appears to be gone.

He said he will continue to chop his oaten straw before he tries to bale it in September and have to give it away to people.

The Straw Incorporation Measure has been a huge success and extremely popular with tillage farmers.

It gave great flexibility to pull parcels from the scheme where there was demand for straw. The scheme was rumoured to be oversubscribed again this year, although the Department of Agriculture had not confirmed what land area had been applied for.

The scheme was oversubscribed in 2023 and the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue provided additional funding to facilitate the increased hectares.

In a statement at that time, he said that the move “clearly underlines mine and the Government’s long-term commitment to the tillage sector in Ireland”.

Clarification

The Department clarified to the Irish Farmers Journal in February that farmers with patches missing from winter crops would be deemed eligible for the Straw Incorporation Measure.

This was a big help to farmers in decision making, but the suspension of the scheme means winter barley with estimates of four to five bales/acre (4X4) which were to be chopped, will not receive payment.