Severe rain may cost 100m

Posted on: 06/07/2012

THE BAD weather has had a severe impact on farm incomes and could end up costing those working across the sector up to €100 million, the Irish Farmers Association has said.

Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney has, in response, taken the step of asking the European Commission to advance the payout of the Single Farm Payment to October to ease the difficulties facing farmers.

The payment this year is expected to be €1.3 billion, which would be shared among 130,000 farmers – an average of €10,000 per farm.

If the application is successful the Department of Agriculture said 50 per cent of the money available through the scheme would be paid out from October 16th, with the balance to be paid out from December 1st.

A spokeswoman for Mr Coveney said the Minister was “reasonably confident” that his request would be granted.

Met Éireann said this week that record rainfall levels had been recorded across Ireland in June with the exception of some parts of Dublin. Cork was particularly badly hit, with the weather station at Cork airport reporting 228.3mm (9in) had fallen, almost three times the average.

IFA president John Bryan said farmers had been forced to house large numbers of livestock and feed bills were up significantly.

“Across all sectors – dairy, beef, tillage and sheep – the impact on farm incomes over the last five weeks has been a hit of €100 million due to higher feed costs and a loss of output.”
Full Story - Irish Times ; http://bit.ly/MOHQN4