Challenges to farmers show not everyone can enjoy the heatwave

Even though the heatwave is exceptional it might be unwise to expect a new record high for Irish temperatures — a mark set at Kilkenny Castle, on June 26, 1887, when 33.3C was recorded. That high is still some way off even though six of the warmest 10 years in Ireland have occurred since 1990.

It would take a certain kind of killjoy, a summertime Scrooge maybe, to complain about such magnificent if untypical weather — unless, of course, you are a farmer trying to feed and water animals while at the same time hoping to grow enough fodder to get through the winter that is coming.