Glanbia Grain Price Positive For The Tillage Sector
IFA National Grain Chairman Mark Browne has welcomed the grain prices announced by Glanbia earlier this week following the company’s decision to pay €210/t for green barley and €220 for green wheat inclusive of shareholder bonuses for harvest 2021.
“With the planted cereal area increasing by 3.7% this year, it is very encouraging to see the tillage sector expanding again. The high grain prices of harvest 2021 provide a much-needed boost in confidence for tillage farmers after several difficult seasons,” he said.
The Chairman also welcomed the decision from the country’s largest maltster, Boortmalt, to pay a final price of €237.67/t for malting barley this year.
“The FOB Creil pricing model has delivered an excellent result for Irish malting barley growers this year, with a further €10/t top-up available for distilling quality malting barley.”
The strong cereal yields experienced in 2021 is expected to produce a national harvest above 2.3 million tonnes, a significant increase on the 1.9 million tonnes produced in 2020.
“Grain quality is also excellent in 2021, with high bushel weights recorded, grain merchants and end-users must seek to maximise usage of Irish grain in feed rations over the coming months,” he said.
Despite the excellent harvest results in 2021, spiralling input prices are casting a high degree of uncertainty for growers as they start preparations for harvest 2022.
“With fertiliser and energy prices set to increase significantly, growers need to seriously look at their production costs and consider the forward grain prices available,” the Chairman concluded.
