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New SFP will hit finishers hardest

Full-time farmers finishing cattle have the most to lose if the Single Farm Payment (SFP) moves to a flat area-based system.

Macra and Dept clash on ERS 'hardship' payments

By Declan O'Brien

The Department of Agriculture will put arrangements in place to enable more than 170 hardship cases to qualify for the Early Retirement Scheme (ERS), which was closed in October 2008.

Site sales escape new 'windfall tax'

By Declan O'Brien

The exemption of one-off site sales from the new 'windfall tax' was confirmed last week in the Finance Bill.

Bryan makes CAP case to Cowen

By Majella O'Sullivan

IFA president John Bryan has told Taoiseach Brian Cowen that the Government must maintain a fully funded farm budget in the CAP negotiations.

ICSA seeks medicine price drop

By Declan O'Brien

ICSA president Gabriel Gilmartin has called for the reduction in the price of branded human health medicines to be extended to animal health products.

Sowings in doubt as prices tumble

By Caitriona Murphy

Tillage farmers are in turmoil following the latest move in grain trading, which predicts a green grain price of €85/t for feed barley this harvest.

Rented grassland costs hold

By Majella O'Sullivan

Regulations under the nitrates directive are continuing to ensure that even bad land is making decent money.

Inside Farming

MEP pushes for a phased SFP move

Any move away from the historic means of establishing farmers' Single Farm Payment (SFP) entitlements must be done on a phased basis, a leading member of the European Parliament's agriculture committee has insisted.

Apply nitrogen to fresh grass

At this time in a normal year, or at least in more recent years, I would be telling farmers to start gearing up to apply early nitrogen. As I look at pastures today, they are a mixture of pale green to light brown in colour, with no sign of fresh growth.

Browned off but all's not lost

I walked my first farm of the year last Friday. A little late in the year, I know, but priority had to be given to other work commitments. Last November, grass quality looked really good on dairy farms. A fine October allowed swards to be grazed out really well. And while November was very wet, we still looked in good shape going into the winter.

Plan fertiliser levels to hit the ground running

Fertiliser is an important tool to help you manage your grass and to encourage extra growth during critical periods of the year when demand from grazing livestock is highest.

Analyse your costs to decide if spring crop sowing is viable

The long struggle to lift the ban on ploughing imposed by the Nitrates Directive hasn't counted for much this year. Up to now, all ground, with the exception of very light ground, has not been fit to plough.

Price slashed for Déise tranquility

A lmost half of the original asking price has been shaved off a Co Waterford farm. The 82ac residential property at Shanbally, Lemybrien, was first up for sale in April 2008 at a €1.7m asking price.

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Columnist Comments

• Kevin Myers: Reality is indeed stranger than the maddest fiction

Alice was looking pale and sullen and her cucumber sandwiches lay uneaten before her.

• Martina Devlin: Shoppers going north are not traitors, just sensible

This time it's Brian Lenihan's turn to do his patriotic duty. When he tried to discourage us from cross-border shopping last year, on the grounds that we'd be paying "her majesty's taxes" rather than contributing to the Republic's economy, his reproach fell on deaf ears.