A planned new Straw Chopping Scheme announced in the budget will hit agricultural contractor incomes by an estimated €4.5 million.
The Association of Farm & Forestry Contractors in Ireland (FCI) has called on the Minister for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue to take account of what it describes huge concerns of Farm Contractors that proposed scheme will have a significant negative impact on their incomes.
FCI told the Minister in a letter this week that these farm contractors have made continuous large private financial investments in the purchase of high output and efficient baling and straw handling machinery over more than a decade, in order to facilitate the management of straw as a varied resource for thousands of their client farmers.