Close to 90pc of spring cereal crops remain to be cut in Donegal as continuous heavy rains have brought the harvest in the county to a standstill.
The wet weather has restricted harvesting to a handful of days over the last three weeks and ground conditions have deteriorated badly.
“The combines haven’t moved in close to two weeks. It’s shocking bad. Two or three dry days is all we’ve had in the last three weeks,” said Peter Lynch, the IFA grain chairman in Donegal.
“Ground conditions are now the big worry,” he told independent.ie.
Mr Lynch said fields that were usually very dry were now holding a lot of surface water. Heavier land is not trafficable.
“We’ll need three of four good dry days before we can go anywhere near crops. It’s not going to be simple if the weather doesn’t improve,” Mr Lynch admitted.
The one positive for growers is that crops are generally standing up very well, apart from some early signs of sprouting.
Teagasc’s Martin McCullough maintained that the situation in the county was “not desperate yet” but he conceded that the weather will need to improve.
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The Teagasc advisor pointed out that over 50mm of rain fell in east Donegal in just two days the weekend before last, and that it had rained nearly every day since.
With close to 4,500ac of spring barley left to be cut, along with small acreages of wheat and oats, IFA members from other parts of the country have offered to bring in combines to help local growers.
“We’ve had plenty of offers from other growers on the [IFA] grain committee to send us up combines, and that’s great, but its weather we need not combines,” Mr Lynch said.
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