THE BAD WEATHER in recent weeks has been more than just an annoyance for some people: farmers are warning that it’s causing major problems for crops.
The Irish Farmers’ Association has said that the wet weather and unexpectedly high levels of rainfall has made it impossible to harvest crops, with two-thirds of silage crop still yet to be harvested.
IFA President John Bryan said farmers are becoming increasingly concerned as the wet weather is set to continue for the week ahead.
“This is posing huge difficulties on farms, with stock re-housed, increases in feed costs, production levels back, and critically, most of next winter’s feed still not in,” said Bryan.
“We would expect to have 80 per cent of silage harvested by the end of June, but farmers are reporting significant delays because of the prolonged, broken spell of weather. The quality of what will be saved will suffer and this will mean extra feeding costs next winter”.
Bryan said that the bad weather will have a negative impact on farm incomes.
Met Éireann says rain is likely every day this week across most parts of the country.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say