Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have come out of one of the worst winters we have experienced in a long time and we are now in a drought, the worst since 1976. In a year when we wanted serious grass and crop growth the first crops are being used to supplement animals. The tillage sector has said spring barley will be an absolute disaster, with very low yields and the prospect of very little straw being available. We cannot sleepwalk into the crisis that will come in the winter of 2018 and the spring of 2019. We must put measures in place now to try to ensure that we have enough fodder in place both from an animal welfare point of view and an economic perspective to get through the six month winter that faces us.

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