THE weather is the enduring conversation opener, especially among farmers, whose work in cultivating the land for food production largely depends on all its vagaries.

Tillage farmers will find meeting repayment deadlines, or making any additional investments extremely difficult this year, according to a Teagasc financial management specialist.

Teagasc potato adviser Shay Phelan has alerted growers to the danger of storage issues — particularly with early lifted crops which were high in dry matter, lifted in very dry conditions straight into boxes.

The month of March was the coldest since records began in many areas, which left soil temperatures 1-2 degrees below normal.