THE RECENT SPELL of wet weather has wreaked havoc for farmers this spring.
Rainfall was above average in most parts of Ireland last month. The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service’s latest monthly report also identified that March was wetter than average across western Europe more broadly. It was also the 10th month in-a-row to see record-breaking average global temperatures as climate change escalates.
The Journal asked farmers to share their experiences of how they’ve been impacted by the weather conditions. We also heard from workers in other industries connected to the land about how the rainfall has affected them.
Among the comments we received were:
Met Éireann has previously warned that both temperatures and rainfall have increased in Ireland over recent decades.
“We know that the atmosphere is warming and what we’re seeing at the local and national scale fits the international picture,” said Met Éireann climatologist Mary Curley.
Here are our readers’ stories.
“At this time of year we should be busy in the fields. We have fertiliser to go out, spraying to be done, and sowing our spring barley. But instead, we are in the kitchen looking at our bank statements and wondering how we are going to make this year’s repayments and pay rent on wet land.
We have the light on as it’s so dark in the heavy rain that even though it’s the 10 April, we need to put the light on to see the small print on the page. As each week goes by, we know our yield potential is dropping, therefore we already know that we will have less income when harvest comes in July and August.
It’s extremely difficult to explain to non-farmers the impact the weather has on our income and therefore our standard of living and wellbeing. Especially when it is completely out of our control. There are many farmers feeling extremely despondent at the moment and it’s very difficult to tell them it will improve, when you just have to look at the weather forecast to see that this broken weather is set to last.”
“I am definitely not in the worst position as we have sheep and beef and no tillage but I would really love it if you could highlight the pressure and responsibility on farmers.
People think that we are always complaining, but for example, I have a shed with 80 cattle in it that depend on me for everything that they eat as I cannot let them out onto saturated land. If I don’t get up and go feed them, then they cannot fend for themselves. I think this is something that is not talked about enough – we are actually responsible for so many lives and that can really get too much in prolonged periods of bad weather.
I have successfully brought 30 new lambs into the world this spring and am fighting to keep them all alive as the driving rain would just kill them if I put them in the wrong field or their mother decides they cannot be bothered to rear them. I work for hours and buy them as much feed as they can eat to keep them alive and by the time I get them to a stage to sell they will be probably worth around €140 each – this is the reality for farmers and that is a lot of the reasons we are at our wits’ end – and no help from government or the IFA or any other body.
Like I said, there are people in much worse off places than I am, but the responsibility is just so much and I cannot wait until the weather improves.”
“Even the cows are starting to look depressed at this stage!”
“I’m a tillage farmer, living in one of the ‘driest’ areas in the country, in south Kildare. I also have very free draining land which is normally easy to cultivate and can usually be worked when many other farmers are unable to do so. That is somewhat the case this year, but I’m still way behind in my spring work.
My autumn sowing programme (October) was not completed till early December. Those crops, wheat and oats, are well advanced now because temperatures have been higher than normal with very little frost.
However, management of these crops is way behind because it’s been impossible to get into the fields with fertiliser and sprays. Timing of the growth development of both of these is crucial for results and in most cases if you miss an application, it’s not possible to catch up and yield will suffer later on.
My spring barley sowings are later than I would wish to get the right results for malting quality, so I may lose out on quality bonuses and perhaps only get animal price at harvest (August). However, my biggest problem is peas.
I grow peas on contract for Batchelors Peas. I’ve been doing this for 40 years and I’ve always sown my peas in February, or sometimes March. Never before have I sown them in April (they’re not sown yet!).
I have no idea when the ground will be dry enough to work on, especially after yesterday and with more rain to come tomorrow. I know I’m luckier than most others out there, many of whom have nothing done yet and land under water.
What happens next, I have no idea. It’s already very late but if the weather dries up soon and stays dry like last year, then all those crops will not develop fully and yields will be poor, similar to last year. That’s the biggest worry.
The costs of growing the crops, seed, fertiliser, sprays, machinery and time remains the same and could be even more because of the weather, but the returns could be much lower. I have to do all the spending first. I have to meet the repayments on the tractors and machines sitting idle in the shed, day after day, first. I have to meet all the government and EU regulations on the environment first. I don’t know if there will be something left for me at the end.”
“I’m a part-time farmer, and, because I have young children, I do spring crops only (everything sown in the spring time). I usually grow three crops; Beans, Oats and Barley.
The ideal sowing dates for these three crops are:
While it is true that sowing conditions trump sowing date, it’s also true that it can get too late for a crop. I have over 30ha of tillage ground, so, by the three-crop rule, I must plant three different crops, where the largest is not more than 75% and the smallest not less than 5% of the farm.
This year, the government announced a derogation for the three-crop rule, but with the predicted scarcity of spring seed, I had purchased all my seed early. Since they announced the derogation, I have decided to drop beans this year. Unfortunately, the merchants won’t accept seed returns, so I have to try to keep the bean seed dry and cool until next spring.
The early sowing date means that by the time the department make these decisions, it’s generally too late to do anything else with beans. I did sow beans on the 8 April in 2018, but the crop was a disaster. The drought in the summer really affected them, coupled with the short growing season, and they only yielded 0.8t a/c (instead of approx 2.5). I will not risk that again – hence I have decided to take advantage of the derogation and only sow Barley and Oats.
I had to source Barley and Oats in a year when spring seed is scarce, so I didn’t get either of the varieties I wanted. I wanted Skyway for Barley and Isabel for the Oats, but the scarcity meant I had to take Amity Barley seed and Husky Oat seed. So, I am further on the back foot.
Now that the crops have been selected, I have the additional worry of what the rest of the year will bring. If rainfall averages mean anything, given that we have seen more than half a year’s worth of rain in the south-east, that means we may well be in for a drought later in the year. Both Beans and Oats are not good with those conditions, but I selected Oats over Beans because of the horrendous performance of the beans in 2018.
I have ploughed the entire farm, and was very lucky to get 17 acres of Barley sown on March 25th. But the rain came a few hours earlier than forecast, and I have yet to sow the remaining 14 acres of Barley, and have none of the 36 acres of oats sown. And Oats should be sown first. But the fields that were driest on March 25th were the ones for Barley.
At the moment, the ground is saturated, and while I have reasonably well-drained ground, I need at least three days of warm, dry and windy weather to help dry it out before I can sow. I also know that in two of my fields, there will be areas that will still be too wet to sow, so I will try my best, but am unlikely to get any yield off these sections.
Speaking of yield – my average yield on Spring Barley is 3.25t/acre. But with such a late sowing date, my yields will be impacted, prob best to hope for now would be approx 2.75t/ac. Oats yield will be impacted also, prob back to maybe 2,5t/ac, also back about 0.5t/ac. That 0.5t/ac of yield loss across both crops will not be borne or shared with anyone else but me. The merchant I deal with will not share that loss with me, so that represents a good portion of the profit on the crop.
Essentially, this year I will be producing crops at cost, if I am lucky. Were it not for EU funded CAP payments, the year would be a total loss. Projected crop prices for this harvest are back about €50/t this year, so that’s another hit. Everything about these yields supposes good sowing conditions and a favourable growing season. Barley and Oats are both a bet against each other, Oats is basically a grass, so it likes water, Barley not so much. So a dry year is better for barley, a wet (NOT washout) year better for oats.
All of the above are issues, before I even begin to talk about the mental anguish this causes, about the lost nights of sleep, about the doom that sits on your shoulders, day in, day out, while you look at long term forecasts and see no end to this wet weather. I lost my Dad before Christmas and I cannot express in words how crushing this all is. I needed this year to go well, to be able to look up at the sky and tell the auld man that I was doing ok, that the farm was in good hands, and that I would do him proud. I’ll be lucky now if I can pay this year’s bills.
The only silver lining for me is that I don’t have animals. To have to listen to them roar with hunger, or have to see thousands of euro go out the gate to purchase feed. It’s bad, but the stock men have it worse.
If you got this far, thanks for reading. We get a bad rap sometimes, but every farmer out there does it for the love of his or her farm. To be setup to fail by circumstances beyond your control is so disheartening, and it feels good to be listened to and that someone wants to hear our stories.”
“I farm 15 suckler cows in the south of Galway. My animals are still housed. They’re normally out mid-March. I’ve purchased 30 extra bales at a cost of €1,000. Otherwise, my cattle would have nothing. The ground is still wet, but improving. However, grass growth is way back.”
“This is latest in the year I have ever sown potatoes, all due to bad weather. I just finished planting today – hope they grow. Home-made compost and recycled cardboard, shopping bags etc used for planting. I’m a small farmer.”
“The weather has been brutal. I have cattle that are getting stuck in the the ground. I went out the other day and I got stuck myself. I took a step and boot came off. Disaster – got stuck and fell on my face. I’m giving up.”
“Our land is heavily laden with water as a result we are feeding silage since last October. Our stocks of silage are running low and it is very worrying for us. To add to our concerns is the nitrate regulations that are being imposed on us. We are restricted from putting out fertiliser to drive our grass growth for silage for next winter’s feed.
Also contracting charges for lights crops will still be the same high cost to add to the pressures of the weather. Our cows haven’t reach peak this year as a result of the wet weather and production is only at 60% on the average of the last 10 years. Thanks for your concerns.”
“I wanted to highlight that it is not just farmers that have been deeply affected by the increased rainfall. I have the utmost empathy for the farming industry and the crisis that they are facing. However, anybody working in the horticulture industry is facing the same struggles that the farming community faces and this is not being highlighted.
I have many family members who work as landscapers and also run a plant nursery. They are not able to work when there is heavy rainfall and this results in a huge loss in earnings, huge financial struggles to pay debiters and to provide wages, which all results in a negative profit turnover.
There are currently no grants or financial supports available to the horticultural industry or to self-employed landscapers who may also have individuals working for them. When the ground is consistently wet and there is heavy rainfall, it is near impossible for landscapers to carry out their work. People are not interested in gardening or buying plants, trees etc when the weather has been so poor. This has a huge knock on effect on anybody who owns plant nurseries or garden centres. There is very little emphasis in the media about this.”
“I feel it’s really really important to highlight that it’s not only farmers who are suffering and not only farmers who will be affected by the fodder industry. I am bewildered to read all this and hear all this from the government etc.
I have first-hand suffered these issues. Nobody has mentioned the effect it’s having and will have in the equine industry at all levels, even just horse owners. There are no plans to help us! I remember having to almost fight with people to get hay in 2017 due to drought in Wicklow.
Right now I’m based in Roscommon. I have absolutely no grazing, just waterlogged muck. I rely solely on last year’s Haylage from a farmer down the road. His supply is soon to run out. I will need to buy fodder for the whole summer and I don’t know how there will be enough for winter for any of us.”
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