Ex-UFU boss: I’ve not seen an August like this since 1985

He spoke of the potential headaches which may lie in store for Ulster’s farmers if the current miserable spell does not abate soon.

Mr Marshall, a 52-year-old beef farmer from Markethill in Co Armagh, described the conditions as “challenging”.

He said: “You’ve quite a lot of grass already harvested, but still a lot to harvest. A lot of the grass cuts are actually weather-beaten – beaten down into the ground this morning. Once that happens, that crop tends to rot.

“The problem is we’ve still got a long time to go with grazing stock – and if the ground starts to get this wet, this early, are we talking about having an early winter? That presents a big problem because we really need another two months of grass for grazing livestock.”

He added: “The key is how long this goes on. There’s always been a fear in agriculture that nature has a funny way of balancing out.

“We’d a very early spell of good weather [in springtime] and that makes us quite apprehensive, because you wonder: Has that been our good weather for the year?

“Will we get an Indian summer? Or is this setting the tone for a very early autumn? That’s our major concern.”

In terms of when he last saw such a wet, dreary August, he said it was while he was still a student in 1985.

“On the dairy farm I was doing my placement on all the livestock was brought back into the house in August, and they stayed in the house right through until May, June the next year.

“So I do remember this happening before. And I suppose that’d be in the back of your mind. You wonder is this going to be a similar year, that’d present challenges with the amount of forage you have to conserve and just extra costs for the industry.”

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