Animal feed mills have been called on to pass price reductions in concentrate feed back to farmers, as the cost of livestock concentrate ration has been slow to reduce in price for farmers.
The Irish Farmers’ Association’s (IFA) Ulster / north Leinster regional chair and pig farmer, Frank Brady, has said that pig feed costs should have fallen by €100/t but have only fallen by €25/t.
He believes feed mills across Ireland have been slow to pass the falling costs on to farmers in the form of a reduced concentrate price.
“Most pig farmers were expecting another drop in feed costs of €25/t on June 1, but millers are telling us they can’t do that because they have forward bought,” Brady explained.
Feed mills need to support livestock sectors
Brady explained that this is impacting all livestock sectors not just the pig sector.
“And feed mills have to realise they are going to have to support farmers by passing back the respective feed price drops to ensure the viability of these sectors,” Brady continued.
“With the reduced milk price, most dairy farms are operating at just above break-even this year. It’s very concerning that an industry that was so profitable last year will see its margins drop so significantly and feed mills must do all they can to support the sector.
“Pig farmers have returned to a profit-making scenario but they need to get back to the credit terms they want, and the only way they can do that is by having lower prices so they can pay their money back,” he said.
Pig farmers are still paying for the very high-priced feed because most farmers have 2-3 months credit so they haven’t felt the benefit of the falling feed costs yet.
“The millers have to realise that to keep an industry there, they have to be seen to be supporting it as best as they can. They can do this by passing all justified feed cost drops back to livestock farmers.”