Farmers have been making the most of the dry weather in recent days to get winter crops in the ground. Tom Murray of O’Shea Farms said they finished lifting potatoes two weeks ago.

Potato farmers are digging in exceptional conditions, while maize is also coming out in extremely dry weather which is making it an ideal time to get crops like winter wheat in after these break crops. Winter barley was the main priority and many farmers have finished planting winter barley at this stage. Conditions have allowed many to get pre-emergence herbicides onto crops to get on top of grass weed control.

This week, many farmers had moved onto wheat. Those growing oats will try and get them in ahead of the forecast rain at the weekend.

Some parts of the country had mist on Monday night and Tuesday morning which slowed down progress for a short while, but few were complaining as so far the planting season has been relatively stress free.

There are still some farmers harvesting crops with spring barley to be cut in the west of the country this week.