Dairy farmers worked 86 hours per week and took less than one day off in the whole month of March last year.

A Teagasc study of labour and stress on farms last spring highlighted weather, workload and feed pressures on farmers.

Dairy farmers worked more than twice the hours of a typical industrial worker, who clocks up 39 hours.

Teagasc researcher Marion Beecher interviewed 347 farmers from 37 discussion groups and 12 counties.

They said the main things stressing them were the weather (storm Emma hit in early March), workload and labour; and feed issues.

Some 41% of farmers bought in extra fodder last spring and 55% were concerned about silage stocks for this winter.

One in five farmers said taking on extra help was the best thing they did to cope, but many highlighted the difficulty of finding workers.

One in three farmers plans to invest in facilities and infrastructure as a result of conditions lasts spring.