Crops suffer in subnormal July temperatures

AFTER a week of wintry July weather, ICMSA president Pat O'Rourke has estimated extra farming costs for the summer of 2002 at more than €100m.

According to Teagasc Chief Tillage Advisor, Jim O'Mahony, cereal disease levels are the worst in 10 years, and potato blackleg and blight levels are high.

Maize and sugar beet were very backward, with beet having the better recovery chances. What looked last spring like a great tillage growing year, especially for winter wheat, now looks like a poor year.