Weather causing havoc for farmers

The “deplorable” weather conditions which have dogged Ireland in recent weeks are severely depleting the incomes of already hard- pressed farmers.

Irish Farmers’ Association president John Bryan made the claim after warning the recent bad weather could cause havoc to Ireland’s silage harvesting.

He said that some IFA members are facing “huge difficulties” as heavy rainfall in recent weeks has put them far behind schedule.

He called on Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney to secure a 50% advance on farm support payments due to be made in October.

“Some parts of the country have had levels of rainfall in the last month that were more than double the norm for this time of year.

Farmers “would expect to have 80% of silage harvested by the end of June, but farmers are reporting significant delays because of the prolonged broken spell of weather.

“The quality of what will be saved will suffer and this will mean extra feeding costs next winter”.

He said “bad weather inevitably means higher costs”, adding: “Simon Coveney must give a firm commitment that he will secure an advance of 50% on the single farm payments for the middle of October, and ensure the full pay-out of disadvantaged area payments in September.”