Farmers along the west coast have been bombarded by incessant rain over the past number of months, with some areas recording the wettest September in a decade. This is delaying progress in spreading slurry ahead of next week’s deadline.

Watch two farms that the Irish Farmers Journal visited in Galway and Cork here:

In the space of 36 hours, over Monday and Tuesday, three inches of rain fell on John Buckley’s farm in west Cork.

“We’ve had very few dry days in between a lot of coastal fog,” Buckley said.

“We sprayed off seven acres for reseeding at the end of August and we haven’t had a good day yet to go at it.

“At least heavy rain would roll off the land but the fog is not letting the land dry out.”

The average rainfall for his farm at Aughaville, Bantry, is 1600mm (64 inches), so far this year 1350mm (54 inches) has fallen, of which 500mm (20 inches) fell since 1 July.

“I’m still holding out for an Indian summer, hoping to get two dry days to get slurry out,” said the former Young Farmer of the Year.

“However, milk yield has definitely gone way back and straw is scarce- because of the way the harvest has gone.”

See more coverage in the Irish Farmers Journal print edition which is out tomorrow or online from 10:30pm tonight.