With between 180mm and 200mm of rain recorded during February, wet conditions are creating a multitude of problems for farmers and contractors across NI.
Waterlogged soils mean there have been few opportunities to relieve the pressure on slurry storage.
Current monthly rainfall totals are almost three times the level recorded during the same month last year.
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, John Lyons, who runs a large-scale contracting operation at Coleraine, said that despite having three pipelines, there has been very little or no slurry work carried out since the first week of February.
“We are running three weeks behind schedule at present, which has to be caught up on. Each pipeline would average around 50 acres/day, so we are down close to 2,000 acres of spreading work at present, when counted up.”
Crumlin-based contractors Pat and Vincent McKavanagh are in a similar position, indicating they would be down 1,000 to 1,200 acres of work compared to last year.
In the west, Trillick-based dairy farmer Michael McCaughey said he has yet to get any slurry or fertiliser out this year.
“Normally we have ground fertilised and cows grazing by day in late February. However, this is not the case at present. We have plenty of grass, but it needs grazed off before slurry can go out. I reckon we have another couple of weeks of slurry storage capacity on farm. Hopefully, things will improve before then,” he said.
In North Antrim, John McHenry is currently lambing 200 ewes, with everything remaining housed.
“We have bought more straw to keep sheep bedded in the short term, but having ewes housed post lambing puts the system under pressure and increases the daily workload and costs,” said John.