This article is from page 4 of the 2013-05-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
CLARE farmers are within touching distance of an end to the fodder crisis – one of the worst feed shortages to hit the county’s farms in decades.
Clare IFA chairman, Andrew Dundas, believes that the next ten days are critical with any remaining fodder running out and grass growth just starting to begin in earnest.
The organisation helped to harvest a further 1,100 bales of silage from land banks at Shannon Airport last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday more than twice what they had predicted they would get from the site.
This mean that 2,300 bales of silage were harvested from the airport over the past two week. While these bales have already been allocated to Clare farmers and are likely all used up – they provided a vital stop gap to get farmers through the worst of the crisis.
“We have gotten a bit of heat and grass is starting to grow. It will take a week or two to get going properly but hopefully the end is in sight,” said Mr Dundas.
“The next few days are the real pressure time on farms but at least an end is, hopefully, in sight. Shannon Airport came at the critical time – there were a lot of farmers in a critical situation over the last 10 days and the bales [from Shannon Airport] really saved them.
“This was about getting people over the hump and I think it made a big difference in the county. I would say all those bales are eaten at this stage – but they were there at a crucial stage.”
One silver lining of the fodder crisis was the way that the local farming community – including the farming organisations, co-ops, marts, local businesses and farmers – came together to see themselves through the crisis.
“A bit of growth is crucial now. It will take a few weeks for the grass growth to come back and hopefully that will be the end of it,” continued Andrew.
“There was a great effort right across the farming community in Clare to get through this. Everyone worked incredible hard and a lot of organisations and people out there deserve a lot credit. It was a real cross community effort – from Shannon Airport to the marts, co-ops and all the agri-businesses. It was a great community effort.” Tue07May13