Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and the opportunity to contribute to this very important debate. The current fodder issue is something we need to learn from. We are now looking at a situation where there may be five to six month long winters. When we look at the question of fodder we must also look at who is advising our farmers and working with them. I am a dairy farmer and I am buying fodder because I have to. We would usually have the cows out day and night by St Patrick's Day, but our cows are inside every night and most days because of the environment and the amount of rain that is falling.

Two colleagues in the House are on the agriculture committee with me. It is something that we need to examine in detail. I question what Teagasc has been doing on this matter. We have had situations where Teagasc was pushing a jersey cross on farmers, with 12 to 14 week winters and it does not work. We have to look at the green fields experiment and all the issues attached to that site. We are pushing something that does not work unless one has the ability to put something into the system when things go wrong, which they do. The weather situation has seen a winter of effectively 21 weeks, from last October until now. It is phenomenal. One would not believe the amount of rain that fell in the last ten days in Cork unless one was there. That is what we need to plan for. We need to look at a herd to which meal and silage can be brought and move away from the jersey cross proposal that has been pushed for the last 15 years.

We also need to talk about the tillage sector. The tillage lads are really under pressure, nothing was ploughed and nothing will be sown. They are looking at a situation where they will be unable to put in spring grain for another few weeks, beet will run until May and maize will definitely run until May. The next big issue will be from where the fodder for next spring will come. Very little of the first cut silage will be done in May, if at all; we are looking at this being done from June onwards. In that case there is a question of quality. When it comes to the second cut there will be a big issue with quantity. The planning for next winter will be the big issue.

The last time we were in this mess was in 2013. There are 365,000 extra dairy cows since then, and they all need to be fed.That is the issue we need to look at with regard to Food Wise 2025 and our policy vision. I personally believe that there is a body of work for the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine to do in really looking at our advice for farmers. Farmers have become slaves to the system and something needs to be looked at. The advice they have been given regarding the length of the winters and the early spring rotation which suggests having livestock out by 10 or 11 February only works on some lands in some parts of the world. There is an awful lot of work at which we really have to look.

Farmers are stressed. They are physically exhausted and under pressure financially, but they are mentally drained. It is an issue about which we need to start talking. The farmers out there have put up with literally 20 weeks of winter. They are mentally exhausted. Farmers need to talk about what is happening. They need to talk to Teagasc and to their friends and neighbours. Unless they have that conversation about how they are feeling we will have accidents and tragedies. That conversation needs to happen. What I would like to get out of this debate tonight is that conversation, one in which farmers will say that they are under pressure and that they are feeling it mentally. They should talk to their families and to their parish. The parish will have to come in to ensure that we can, as a community, get through this.

The next few days will tell a lot. At the moment it is raining in Cork, and I mean it is raining. If that continues, we will have a very tough few days ahead of us. I am buying in fodder because I need to. We have to ensure that we get over the next few weeks. The next ten days will be crucial. Ground conditions are terrible. I ask the Minister of State to get personally involved in talking about that mental issue and the stress farmers are under. I ask him to ask farmers to get involved in that conversation in order to get the message out there that if farmers are under pressure, the best thing to do is to talk about it.