Rising to the harvest challenge

Ray Ryan hears why tillage farmers are facing into a hard harvest, with incomes driven down by grain imports, poorer prices and reduced yields.

Harvest time in Ireland, with fields of golden corn, often drenched in glorious sunshine beneath a canopy of blue skies and against a background of hazy mountains and green landscapes, has inspired poets, painters and prose writers for generations.

Sometimes, high winds and heavy rain spoil the views, damaging crops and creating difficulties for machinery accessing fields on soggy ground.