This article is from page 30 of the 2008-07-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 30 JPG
WHILE much of the county ploughed along on the last embers of the Celtic Tiger, Clare farmers have been feeling the pinch for more than six months. The recession, and in particular the cost of petrol and die- sel, has been squeezing incomes for the county’s 3,267 full-time farmers since the later stages of 2007.
Increased cost of fuel, fertiliser and feed has raised the cost of fire inputs by an estimated 20 per cent in just Te.qseslonaecy
“There are three items that have
been impacting heavily on farming in Clare over the last six or seven months. One would certainly be the increase in fuel costs, there is also the increase in fertiliser and the in- crease in feed,” said Clare IFA Presi- dent Michael Lynch.
“All the farm work done these days is influenced by fuel costs and the chemicals used which are derived from fuel. That has all combined to put up our costs substantially.
“Treland has a pretty long wintering period for stock and all the cost asso- ciated with winterage, whether it be feed or fuel, will have a more detri-
mental impact on Ireland because of that. The other detrimental impact it will have is that it will put pressure on our markets which will limit their purchasing power for farm products.
“They will move to cheaper prod- ucts and away from higher quality products such as beef and lamb pro- duced by Irish farmers. So farmers will be hit on both ends – both at the input side and the output side.”
While Clare’s full-time farmers face tightening margins, many of the county’s estimated 4,000 part-time farmers find themselves in an even more perilous position.
“That is a very serious aspect for farmers in County Clare. So many farmers in Clare have to have second off-farm income just to stay afloat. With an awful lot of them losing their jobs in the construction indus- try its going to force a lot of people who could not earn a living in farm- ing back into full time farming,” continued Mr Lynch.
While last week’s expenditure cuts announced by the Department of Ag- riculture avoided cuts to major farm related schemes, fears are growing that any further cuts would have a catastrophic effect on farm incomes.
“It really does depend on how deep this recession goes. So far it appears that there is not too many curtailments, but if it continues then who knows? We have a lot of worry about the Farm Waste Management Scheme where the deadline has to be met by the end of the year,” said Mr Lynch. “Farmers are spending a lot of money upgrading premises to the standards required by the Nitrate Directive Regulations. It’s going to be difficult to get all of that work fin- ished in time and if farmers fail to meet the deadline then they will be places into even further difficulty.”