Dr. Frank O'Mara:

I am happy to talk about it insofar as I can. It is a rapidly evolving situation. First and foremost, a major humanitarian issue has captured all our attention and sympathy for the people of Ukraine. On top of that is the impact that will have on our food system. Over the last six months, we have had a significant challenge for the sector. We have had rising prices for fertiliser since late last year. That was a significant challenge, particularly for dry stock farmers. Dairy farmers' incomes and the price of milk are reasonably good so they are better positioned. That challenge is being exacerbated and, in addition, feed prices are increasing significantly.

The pig sector was already in a significant price-cost squeeze, in that the price of pig meat had fallen and the price of feed has risen quite a bit not only in recent weeks, but in the last few months. The pig industry has been under serious pressure regarding profitability in recent months and that will be exacerbated with current developments. We will see increases in the price of grain-based feeds in the coming weeks and have the worry of availability because Ukraine and Russia are big grain-growing and, in the case of Ukraine, grain-exporting countries. What impact will the war have on short-term supply and product moving out of those regions and getting to Ireland and other countries? What will be the impact in the medium and long term on next year's harvest in Ukraine. They are big growers of wheat and maize. Most of the wheat is sown already. It is a winter crop. Will it be harvested? Will the crops be minded in the growing season? Will the maize crop that is due to be sown in a month or so get sown?

We have huge uncertainty about the global supply of grains and how that will play out in the food and feed markets. Not too long ago - 2005, I think - we had a spike in grain prices around the world and it led to much civil unrest and regime change. A huge issue is building. We need as a country and as individual farmers to make sure we have a secure supply of feed for our animals. Every farmer needs to look at the number of animals he or she will have next winter and whether there will be sufficient food for them. That is a big part of the work we will do with farmers to plan the resilience of their feed supply at an individual level for the next year.

We are heading into a critical period for livestock farmers in relation to the silage-making season. Before the Ukraine crisis arose and we were just dealing with the fertiliser issue, we told farmers to make better use of organic manures to reduce the amount of fertiliser they might have to buy, and not to cut short fertilisation, whether organic manures, slurries or chemical nitrogen for their silage crop. We will double down on those messages with livestock farmers.

We will encourage tillage farmers to see if we can grow more grain in this country. I will let Mr. Spink come in on this in a minute. We have a short window left in the sowing season and many of our crops are winter-sown and already in the ground. Within the remaining period and depending on the availability of seed and the likelihood of having fertiliser to grow those crops, is there an opportunity to grow more grain?

Poultry producers and especially pig produces are in the hot seat. It will be a difficult period for the coming weeks and months, initially regarding affordability of feed and, in the medium or long term, the potential disruption to supplies of feed. On top of that is the potential disruption to supplies of fertiliser through manufacturing capacity in Russia, which we rely on to a reasonable extent. Of the order of 30% of our fertiliser, or maybe not quite that high, came from Russia last year. The price of gas, which is a big component of fertiliser making, went through the roof a long time ago. I do not know what it has gone through at this stage. That is all impacting on the fertiliser business. In my time in the industry I have never seen as much uncertainty around those issues as we have now.

Allied to that uncertainty, I have never seen as high a risk for us. If things go wrong, they could go very badly wrong in relation to our food supply and the feed supply for our animals. It is a situation that will require very close monitoring and action and working closely with farmers. There is a big job to be done to support farmers in terms of securing their fodder supply for the coming year. Does Mr. Spink wish to come in on the tillage end of it and the possibilities there?