The wet weather conditions experienced this July “have been nearly as bad as the wet summer of 1985,” one farmer from Co. Leitrim has told Agriland.
The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) sheep committee chairperson and north Leitrim farmer Kevin Comiskey said: “I remember in the summer of 1985, land was so wet we had to bring the silage out and bale it on the roads.
“We brought it out on buck rakes and baled it on the roads. That’s how wet it was.”
While Comiskey admitted “it hasn’t come to that yet”, he said “it’s not far off it”.
Commenting on the situation in the north-western part of the country, he explained that the requirement not to cut meadows until July 1 as part of the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) has caused “serious bother”.
“There’s a lot of fields very wet and an awful lot of fields not cut across the country. Because of the ACRES measures, some farmers weren’t able to cut meadows until July 1 and now they’re in serious bother because the meadows are gone brown and the quality will be low,” he said.
The Leitrim farmer said that there is a lot of rain forecast for many regions this weekend but added “there’s nothing farmers can do about the weather”.
He explained that farmers who are waiting to cut silage have two options: “If ground is dry enough they will cut it and if it’s not dry enough they have to leave it. Simple as.”
The IFA sheep committee chair added: “It’s bad enough that lamb prices are falling at the minute but the prolonged rainfall will reduce the thrive on lambs too.”
Comiskey said the matter of getting silage crops secured without causing excessive damage to fields is currently one of the more pressing farming issues in his region.
“There’s a good bit of fodder made already but there’s a lot more silage still waiting to be cut.
“It’s a farm-by-farm decision. If farmers see a dry day and ground is okay they will chance it but the contractors will all be under pressure.
“There’s a lot of silage still to be made everywhere but ground conditions are not good in general.”