It has been highlighted that the heavy rainfall in recent weeks has “taken a high toll” on the harvest with a lot of farmers reporting heavy lodging of crops in the field.

The Irish Farmers’ Association’s (IFA’s) livestock chairman, Angus Woods, has said the effects of the rainfall “is going to make the remaining harvest very difficult and result in high field losses”.

Woods – who is running for the position of IFA president in the upcoming elections – also noted that crops coming in at “higher moisture contents than optimal”.

All grain farmers are hoping for an improvement in weather conditions to allow them get back to harvesting their crops, including many acres of spring barley.

Woods – who grows spring barley on rented land – added that: “Growers and contractors are ready to move as the weather is expected to improve over the weekend and for the early part of next week.”

However, he stressed that grain growers need the support of their buyers and particularly the compounders who he said “appear happy to substitute imported cereals for native product, which can undermine quality and traceability”.

Concluding, Woods called on the feed compounders and other buyers to “support the Irish grain market and buy Irish grain in preference to imports, ensuring high-quality feed for livestock farmers”.