Cost inflation, weather, and silage additives are challenges to higher silage costs

Agricultural contractors have faced four months of unprecedented challenges, which began with a late spring, and was followed by a period that culminated with the highest prices ever charged for agricultural diesel and to be then followed by a four-day sunshine bliss that panic-shortened the first cut silage season.

But long before the outbreak of the Iran war, spare part prices for agricultural machinery had been steadily increasing year-on-year to the current unprecedented level. While the hundred percent increase in the agricultural diesel price during March and into April 2026 was the one that hit the headlines, survey data from members of the Association of Agricultural and Forestry Contractors in Ireland (FCI) have shown that routine servicing parts such as oil, diesel, and air filters have increased by 25%, whilst lubricating oil has gone up 20%, according to the association’s National Chair, Kildare contractor Norman Egar.

“Our members have been struggling to cope with increases in the cost of providing their services, long before the near hundred percent increases in agricultural diesel prices hit the national headlines,” said FCI National Chairman, Norman Egar. “While the agricultural diesel prices have fallen to levels that are still up to 30% higher than last year, most of the other costs, that are not always as transparent to our farmer clients, but impact hugely on our sector operating costs, have either remained in place or continued to increase,” said Norman Egar.

“The price of agricultural diesel is still close to 30c per litre higher than it was prior to the outbreak of the war in Iran. As the future of the war remains unclear, uncertainty remains for contractors due to consequent volatile shifts in international and in turn local fuel prices from day to day,” added Norman. “FCI carries out weekly agricultural diesel price surveys where the erratic movement in fuel prices is both clearly evident and regionally variable,” he said.

That word ‘uncertainty’ rings true when it comes to the Government’s Fuel Income Support Scheme too; contractors still don’t know how much they will receive from the scheme. If the scheme is oversubscribed, payments will be less than the 20c per litre that was advertised. “Even if contractors do get the maximum 20c per litre, they will still be well short of the fuel prices from last year’s harvest – meaning prices for services such as silage harvesting and baling, simply must go up,” said Norman Egar.

Most farmers know that a trip to their local machinery dealer to get routine preventative maintenance parts for a combine harvester or baler could now set them back five or six thousand euro, whilst any breakdown during silage time will cost the contractor near double that figure.

This year, FCI member agricultural contractors are also reporting increased incidents of stone damage to mowers and rakes, as the wet March and April ground conditions prevented many farmers from having the opportunity to roll silage ground or pick incidental stones.

“Unnecessary machine downtime due to stone damage adds costs in terms of replacement part costs and valuable harvesting time lost during that short spell of May dry weather. These are additional costs that have to be borne by the agricultural contractor,” said Norman Egar, National Chair of the Association of Farm and Forestry Contractors in Ireland (FCI).

The farmer urgency to cut silage crops that was evident in mid-May was fraught with contractor concerns about the impact of late Nitrogen applications on silage quality. “While some farmers may have resorted to using silage additives with the aim of ensuring silage quality, timing of harvesting in relation to fertiliser applications has always had a bigger impact on the silage quality that the brand of machine that was responsible for the harvesting process,” said Norman Egar.

“At FCI we will be requesting that Teagasc, working together with the support of the Department of Agricultural, Food and the Marine (DAFM), resume a silage additive evaluation programme to ensure that farmers who wish to use additives to maximise the quality of their silage, can do so knowing that the products that they select have an independently proven efficacy in Irish silage preservation conditions, “ said Norman Egar.

“Our FCI agricultural contractors have made huge ongoing financial investments in new machine technology and developed skills and experience to meet the silage harvesting needs of Irish farmers. Meanwhile, it is now over 20 years since Teagasc produced its last Teagasc Directory of Silage Additives, at a time when additives are costing between €25 and €35 per acre (see Note*). Silage contractors cannot be made the scapegoat for poor quality silage when the accepted variable impacting factors include date of fertiliser application, date of harvesting, and the use of silage additives,” Said Norman Egar.

(*Please Note: The cost of silage additives at between €25 and €35 per acre is based on €150 to €160 per bottle/package for 100 tonnes of fresh grass)

The agricultural and forestry contractor sector has also seen rapid increases in labour costs due to the auto-enrolment pension scheme and an increase in minimum wage. The result is that contracting business owners have faced significant increases in their wage bills during 2026, if they want to retain their staff.

“Our agricultural and forestry contractor sector lacks a large pool of new highly trained entrants, so keeping the current skilled machinery operators on the teams of our FCI members, is crucial to the sector’s survival. As employers we must also meet the expectations of our employees at a time of high living cost inflation,” he added.

“All of these additional cost increases, machines, fuel combined with people skills, need to be factored into the business plans of every FCI agricultural and forestry contractor to ensure sustainability. Managing these huge cost increases through ongoing investments that deliver new levels of efficiency and optimise output, while also maintaining the quality of their vital machinery services to farming and forestry, in what is now a billion euro service to Irish farming, comes at a cost,” he added.

“This additional cost of the provision of modern agricultural and forestry contractor services at a time of high inflation in machinery, fuel and labour cost, must be appreciated across the entire agricultural industry at a time when our sector has clearly delivered on its essential role of driving forward a thriving Irish agricultural and forest economy,” said Norman Egar, National Chair of the Association of Farm and Forestry Contractors in Ireland (FCI).