Only 30% of €400m harvest has been cut

AS LITTLE as 30% of the €400 million crops harvest has been completed to date, the Irish Farmers’ Association has estimated.

Normally, at this time of the year, 60% to 70% of the crops would have been cut, but the wettest August on record has caused huge delays. One of the biggest problems facing farmers is that they can’t take heavy harvesting machinery into fields because of saturation.

IFA grain committee chairman Colum McDonnell said harvesting of the main crop of two million tonnes of grain generally begins in mid-August, but the extreme wet weather has held it back.