Farmers encouraged to shop around for key inputs

IFA Farm Business chair Bill O'Keeffe has encouraged all farmers to shop around for best rates on key inputs. His comments come after the IFA Farm Business Committee undertook a survey of prices available nationwide in the last week.

“We felt as a Committee we had to look at costs inputs nationwide this spring and have concentrated on a few key inputs that most farms use: fertiliser, feed and fuel,” Bill O’Keeffe said.

“For fertiliser we looked at the most popular fertilisers sold, CAN, 18s and Protected Urea. What we found is a price discrepancy of almost €70 a ton between the cheapest and the dearest nationwide. On beef and dairy rations, we observed differences of almost €40 a tonne and similar in a 1,000-litre fill of green diesel,” he said.

The IFA Farm Business Committee is encouraging all farmers to shop around for the best prices available on inputs this spring. After a number of years of inflated input prices, margins on farm are under pressure and we cannot afford to overpay for inputs.