Plight of farmers in Ulster after failure of the harvest (1950)
After a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Ulster Farmers’ Union, which was held in Belfast during this week in 1950, a stark warning was issued about the plight facing farmers in Northern Ireland after the failure of that year’s harvest.
The UFU issued the following statement: “From the reports, resolutions and appeals which were submitted at today’s meeting it is now evident that the farmers of Northern Ireland are facing one of the most difficult and trying winters for a generation.
“The persistent wet weather is rapidly exhausting any hopes that were held three weeks ago that there was still a chance of salvaging a substantial proportion of both hay and grain, cut and uncut.
“The lapse of time has levied a very heavy toll and one of the many consequences is a rush to clear off livestock, fatstock and stores, because of the extreme scarcity of feed and fodder.
“As 60 per cent, of the farms of the province are 30 acres or less in size, it allows little or nothing of a safety margin against a year of crop shortages.
“Owing to the lateness of the season, little hope is now held out on thousands of Ulster farms of anything like sufficient fodder that would reach through to the early spring; hence the existing anxiety to get rid of stock.
“Never within living memory have farmers become so discouraged and disheartened as they feel that they are now faced with an almost impossible task.”
The UFU’s statement continued: “The Executive today also received appeals for steps to be taken through the Ministry of Agriculture for the immediate setting up of an emergency scheme for the supply of labour for further hay and grain salvage operations, and to help with the raising of the potato crop. Disease, it appears, is rampant this year in the late or main crop varieties.
“It was arranged that the president’s committee of the union should seek an interview at the earliest possible moment with the minister in an effort to ascertain what effective steps can be taken to meet the existing deplorable conditions.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture said that the minister was in full sympathy with the farmers and fully alive to the difficulties with which they were faced.
He said: “The minister is at present on a short holiday but was expected back on duty next week when, no doubt, he would afford the Ulster Farmers’ Union the opportunity to make the representations they desire.”
A member of the executive of the union said in conversation with a News Letter reporter that the loss and damage caused by the weather was so general and widespread that “there would be no question of seeking financial aid from the government”.
They said: “There is no acute shortage of labour to meet normal demands, but owing to the sodden state of the fields which precluded the use of machinery and to the fact that double handling of crops was necessary – sprouting making it essential to take down corn stooks – exceptional labour will be needed even if the weather improves.
“There is still a chance for the farmers if given the labour force needed. Though a 50 per cent loss of hay and a 25 per cent loss of corn is probable.”
Reflecting on the failure of the province’s harvest of 1950 the News Letter noted in a editorial comment: “No great flight of imagination is needed for town-dwellers to envisage the situation which the persistent rainfall this season has created in country areas.
“If it were, however, a statement issued by the Ulster Farmers’ Union is sufficiently illuminating. Three weeks ago there was, it seems, still a chance of salvaging a substantial portion of the hay and grain crops, cut and uncut.
“Today, with little or no improvement in weather conditions, the position has deteriorated to such an extent as to present an almost hopeless task. Hence the rush by so many farmers, with little hope of securing feed and fodder for the winter, to clear off their livestock, fat stock, and stores.
“Hence, too, the decision of the union executive to ask the Ministry of Agriculture to initiate an emergency labour scheme with a view to facilitating such hay and grain salvage as may still be possible and to assist with the potato crop.
“A sympathetic reply is, of course, certain, and it may be hoped that when the call for volunteers comes the response will be prompt and adequate.
“Time was when the farmer’s anxieties and disappointments were commonly regarded very much as his own affair, and failed even to ruffle the surface of non-rural life.
“Today, as perhaps, never before, crop failures are recognised to be a serious matter indeed for the whole community.”