Teagasc, the farm advisory service, is to conduct a survey of tillage farms in the south hit by a bacterial infection called xanthomonas, commonly known as "brown cabbage disease". The disease occurs in the brassica crops - cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, turning the outer leaves a brown/black colour. The disease, however, is not harmful to humans and does not affect the taste.
A spokesman for Teagasc said that while the disease is present most years, it is particularly bad this year in southern areas because of the bad weather in August.
"The main problem is that it makes the vegetable look very bad and the farmers cannot sell them," he said.
He said the only option for some of these farmers is to feed the diseased crops to animals, but as many of them specialise only in tillage crops, they do not have animals.
The spokesman said cabbage producers had been hit harder than the cauliflower growers and the disease seemed to be having a lesser impact on Brussels sprouts.
He said the disease can be spread from cabbage to cabbage by water droplets or by insects. It can also be spread by the farmer walking through his crop.
"While little can be done about this year's crop, we have made recommendations for next year to prevent a recurrence," he said.
Farmers are being advised to use heat-treated seed, as the disease is also carried in seedlings, and to operate a good crop rotation system.