While crops have fared better than anticipated, the consistent rainfall has pushed spring operations behind schedule.

Rainfall levels over recent months have left tillage farmers facing a challenging start to the season, with some field work stalled, sowing and ploughing delayed and some crop losses reported.

It comes as data from Met Éireann shows January 2026 was the coldest in five years and the wettest in eight, while some areas are experiencing their wettest month in three decades. Soils remain saturated, and poorly drained land continues to be waterlogged.

Co Tipperary agricultural consultant PJ Phelan said that while crops have fared better than anticipated, the consistent rainfall has pushed spring operations behind schedule.

“Land has taken water very well this year, but areas where there has been compaction, particularly older tillage land, that’s the biggest problem,” said Phelan. “But by and large, land has, despite all the rainfall, drained remarkably well.

“If you looked at rainfall levels and tried to relate that to what you’d expect crops to be looking like, they look a lot better than you’d expect. Disease levels seem to be relatively low.”

He said that winter barley is tillering well except in completely waterlogged areas, while winter wheat has performed well with minor septoria and rhizoctonia levels reported.

However, sowings are delayed. “We have almost nothing sown. We like to have beans sown before St Patrick’s Day, as sowing them later than that runs the risk of a very late harvest. Spring beans are going to suffer the most. That does disrupt some people with their three-crop rule.”

Phelan said crop failures have mostly been limited to areas of “absolute waterlogging,” with completely wiped-out fields in the minority.

He said if the current weather persists, it will mean later sowing. “It’s very unusual that we’re in March and we have no fields fit to be sown. We still have farmers who have sugar beet to pull where land has been too wet to travel. Normally, there would be a certain amount of ploughing done at this stage, and none of it is done.”

Richard Hackett, an agronomist in north Co Dublin, said that the November rainfall caused more damage along the east coast, particularly to late-sown crops. Surface compaction and seed losses have affected crop viability in certain areas, though fully flooded fields remain relatively small.

“Every field has a wet spot at the moment,” said Hackett. “Generally speaking, it’s more part or a proportion of a field. Taking out a proportion, field averages will drop, and costs will stay the same.

There are going to be crops that are going to be looked at – are they going to be economically viable, or are they going to have to be pulled out and reseeded?

“There are going to be crops that are going to be looked at – are they going to be economically viable, or are they going to have to be pulled out and reseeded? That’s a decision people have mainly from the November weather, more so than anything else.

“It could have been a lot worse from a tillage point of view, at least it didn’t happen in March or April. We’re not used to this kind of rainfall, and it wasn’t the amount of rainfall that came; it was the fact that it was so consistent, and we don’t have the drainage systems and have very few rivers along the east coast.

“The question is how quickly land is going to dry out to get started. Do you work with the wet spot or the dry spots? That’s where the decision will be.”

Source - https://www.independent.ie