Though not pressurised to take the reins, Bobby and his father made the decision to take the early retirement scheme. Bobby who had studied mechanical engineering at Carlow IT grasped the opportunity with an open mind and a hunger to learn.

But while just a couple of decades have passed since he began farming in his own right, Bobby says “a silent cull of the tillage sector” has rapidly occurred in the intervening years.

And while he continues to progress his enterprise, adapting to new ideas, policies, technologies and machinery, Bobby is truly starting to question whether the sector-at-large will ever shout stop.

Walking through his croplands with the Farming Independent, the farmer, and chairman of the Irish Grain Grower’s Group journeyed back to the start.

“The first thing that went was the sheep, we had around 80 ewes on the farm, but I wanted to run the place more efficiently. My father would have done a lot of drainage in the ‘70s when it was encouraged; he took out ditches turning four and five fields into one block at a time. It was, as I call it, ‘the dawn of the chemical age’.

“It does make life easier for us today; but we’re fully aware that the language has completely changed on the environmental aspects and we now follow that train of thought and we’re looking for other solutions like crop rotation and biological advances in technology,” said Bobby who still leans on his father for sounding advice.

While Bobby always harboured a grá for livestock and invested in slats and facilities to finish up to 60 cattle each year, he recognised the sector’s struggles early on and kept his ambitions focused on the tillage side of the business.

Supported by family, Bobby gradually increased his land bank around Rathmore and Vicarstown to circa 200ac – including 80ac of rented ground. This gave the husband to Denise and father-of-two adequate space to run the tight, progressive system that he wanted, whilst also allowing him to continue his contractor work ploughing and spraying too.

CAP

This year, he has 28ac of spring beans (variety: Lynx, sown March 8, 2021), 43ac of spring barley (variety: Laurette, sown March 23, 2021), 31ac winter barley (variety: Cassia, sown October 14, 2020), 41ac of winter gluten free oats (variety: Isabel, sown October 14, 2020) and 40ac of spring oats (variety: Husky, sown April 3, 2021).

“It’s all about management. Most tillage farmers plan four or five years ahead for their crop, I can’t just wake up in the morning and decide I’m going to go off and sow something new. But sometimes you learn it the hard way.

“In recent CAP reform the three-crop rule was brought in where a farmer with 30ha of arable land was required to grow at least three different crops. Europe is very deficient in protein, it is only 15-20pc self-sufficient in protein crops.

“I decided to sow beans four years ago. They are a fairly new crop to grow on a large scale in Ireland, and with the Government Protein Aid Payment that came in it encouraged more farmers to grow them mostly for livestock feed.

“I plough and sow them in early March at a depth of about 3-4 inches to keep the crows at bay. I’ve medium-type soil, it’s easy enough worked to be fair.

“Beans mightn’t be the highest yielding and we had two very poor years in 2018 and 2020 because of drought. I had an excellent yield in 2019, I had over 2.5t/ac of beans,” said Bobby adding that profit “can be anything from zero up to €400-€500/ac”.

“Margin is a real roller-coaster in beans, there are contracts coming up and new markets being developed for different crops. You have to look at beans over the four or five year average, you can’t take it on one year.

“They are a very good break crop, they don’t need any chemical nitrogen to grow, P and K yes, but you don’t need as much nitrogen for the following crop, so that is another advantage.”

Nonetheless, the Glanbia Ireland supplier, is looking to switch his bean crop – growing in his GLAS field framed by a six-meter hedge margin dotted with bat and bird boxes – back into oilseed rape.

“It’s a decision I’ll have to make over the next couple of months. Oilseed rape is increasing in price substantially, so it could be an alternative for me. Plus, my previous oilseed rape keeps popping up through my beans, that is a problem.”

Beyond these ground-level challenges, Bobby says such decisions are also “hugely influenced” by the tillage sector’s current status in the wider agricultural sphere.

He argues that incentives are needed to entice farmers into buying “native ration”, which would give tillage farmers “a stronger reason” to grow the low-carbon legume crop.

“Ireland is hugely dependent on cheap protein imports from the likes of Brazil and Argentina for our animal feed – including GMOs. Our competition, as tillage farmers, is protein and grain imports at the end of the day,” said Bobby, outlining that 3.5 million tonnes of feed ingredients, from up to 60 countries, are shipped to Irish ports each year.

“We have an excellent, environmentally-efficient product in legumes and grain for feed. Today dairy farmers have increased their feed intake because the grass isn’t growing. On beef, especially with winter finishing, they are fed intensively with feed from every part of the world – yet, all our meat and dairy is promoted as ‘grass-fed’.

The Irish tillage farmer is left out of the equation completely with no recognition of the vital role we play for those sectors.

“It really annoys me because there is huge resistance to environmental calls for reducing the national herd; but Ireland’s tillage area has dropped 40pc in 40 years, including 15-16pc in the last decade alone, yet there is no real complaining about the cull of the tillage sector.

Political

“The average tillage income, €33,000-€35,000, is a distant second to the dairy income at the moment, when it used to be on a par. We lost the sugar beet industry and the use of Irish grain in the milling industry is practically non-existent, so I use the word ‘cull’ because it’s something people might understand.

“We haven’t been looked after as a sector and I suppose it’s a political football to a degree, there are 11,000 farmers in tillage and 80,000 in beef, so I suppose that is a lot more votes in rural areas.”

Moving on his winter barley between downpours of hail, Bobby says, like all grass growth currently, his crops are “growing slowly” because of the cold weather.

“It made it through the winter fairly well, but could do with a bit of heat now. In terms of the husbandry, I applied farmyard manure and slurry before sowing, barley is probably my most delicate crop, it likes to be nourished, it doesn’t like hardship.

“I will give it a final spray soon to keep disease off and give it a bit more trace elements to keep it fit. It’s like an athlete we want to get it to peak performance,” said Bobby whose milling barley is all contracted for the drinks industry.

“I used to do mostly spring barley, but I’m nearly gone completely the opposite now because it’s more profitable and the three crop rule was another reason to change over.

Winter cereals

“At the minute, everything is going to Glanbia, it’s the most profitable route for me right now. Winter barley should leave a decent margin this year, it could go up €20/t or down €20/t but we take the risk and we manage that risk on the farm,” he said adding that the sector would need to see a €50/t increase in grain price to compete with dairy incomes.

However, he is reaping the rewards of diversifying into gluten-free oats.

“In some ways oats was the forgotten crop in Ireland for the last 30 years, but it’s slowly making a comeback. It is my most profitable crop.

“I took a chance growing it in 2015 and ever since, it’s the first crop I make sure that I have land available,” he said.

But while Bobby refuses to stand still in his determination to find solutions for tillage sector, he is worried about the next generation of grain growers.

“Are they there? I can’t see too many coming, it’s a worry I have. I see a lot of young farmers getting into dairy; but on the tillage side who is going to take over from who is farming at present?

“When I started farming here first, the roads around Stradbally were hopping with farmers delivering grain to the local store – now Stradbally Town and Country. It’s much quieter now, there’s far less activity – from a tillage point of view that is a frightening reality,” he concluded.

Laois oats fill porridge bowls from the US to Germany

Standing in his 41ac “green sea” of winter gluten free oats, Bobby Miller says the entire crop will make 3.2 million bowls of porridge for consumers in Ireland, Germany, the US and beyond (one acre = 80,000 bowls).
He started growing the food-grade crop in 2015 and it has become the “most profitable” part of his tillage and dairy heifer B&B enterprise.

While he doesn’t own a combine harvester (a neighbour, Denis Dooley, has been cutting his crops for years) Glanbia’s “closed-loop system” added to the appeal.

“It’s not as expensive to grow as other winter crops, it’s able for hardship in winter, less pesticide usage and it’s an enduring crop. The closed-loop system with Glanbia means they cut and draw it to the local store, so I don’t have those costs either.”

He forward sells some of his oats too. “Price is based on the price of wheat Glanbia is offering on certain days or the fixed harvest price. I get €40/t on top of that.

“The margin, on average, is about €150/€200 more than my other crops (per acre). 10-12 people will walk this field soon to inspect for impurities, it’s a tight run show before it hits the shopping basket.”