“I haven’t one potato sowed yet,” says Wexford farmer Seán Ryan. “We’d normally have them all planted by St Patrick’s Day.”
Last month was the wettest March on record and with downpours continuing into April, ongoing difficult weather conditions are having a massive impact on farmers across the country.
“We are now into our sixth week of bad weather which is having a huge impact on farmers across all sectors. Livestock are indoors when they should be grazing, the sowing of crops has been delayed and fertiliser for first-cut silage has yet to be spread. The financial cost of this is spiralling by the week,” says Irish Farmers’ Association president Tim Cullinan.
For Ryan, a 53-year-old farmer from Ballindoney, Ballywilliam, Enniscorthy, the delay in being able to plant his potato crop will have consequences. “You’d normally be harvesting in July, August but now that income stream will be six weeks late,” he says.
He would usually plant his Queen potatoes first followed by Roosters and Golden Wonders but they will now all be planted together. “You won’t have the same crops of potatoes, you won’t have the same growing time.”
Planting potatoes is different from sowing grain, he adds. “You are going deeper into the ground, so it has to be drier down underneath.”
Furthermore, potatoes are a very weather-dependent crop. “You don’t want it raining when you’re planting them but you need the rain later on for growth.”
Increasing input costs are one of the main challenges facing potato growers. “That’s the big issue,” he says. “You are not getting any more for your product, but input costs like fertiliser have gone up a lot.”
Gone are the days of storing potatoes in clay pits. “The spec from supermarkets is so high now,” he says. “They have to be perfect, the right colour, so you have to store them in cold rooms at 3 degrees to stop them from budding, which is costing a fortune. One farmer told me it is costing him €4,500 a month.”
The planting of grain is late too this year due to the inclement weather. “It is late and it is a major concern,” says Kieran McEvoy (48), a tillage farmer from outside Emo, Co Laois.
It could take as many as five days for his land to be dry enough to begin planting.
McEvoy grows a variety of crops including spring beans, spring gluten-free oats, malted barley and winter crops such as winter barley and winter wheat.
“We’ve had a lot of rain since last October,” he says, “which meant that there was a difficult sowing season for winter crops, which in turn has caused a backlog for the springtime.”
However, he is keen to adopt a positive and rounded approach. “Look, I’m outside and the sun is shining. We won’t write off crop 2023 just yet. But it’s really important that farmers keep safe and be there for the harvest.”
Meanwhile, Brendan Golden (50), a suckler and beef farmer from outside Killala, Co Mayo, says after the prolonged period of wet weather, farmers are under pressure.
“You can feel the stress levels across the phone.”
He has “90 per cent” of his livestock housed but after the promised improvement in the weather over coming days, is hopeful he will be able to let them out.
“If we don’t get the fertiliser out this coming week, it won’t be easy to have the silage ready for the 1st of June,” he says.
“Were the wet weather to continue for any longer, it would cause serious pain. Every day at this stage is significant,” he adds.
