Large amounts of cereals are yet to be sown, particularly in the northeast and southeast of the country.

Potatoes, maize and beet are still not in the ground on many farms.

Many have been working between the showers, but drier weather this week may help with progress.

Some land remains extremely wet and will need considerable drying before machinery moves into fields.

It’s a stressful time for tillage farmers, but as they continue to try and plant crops international grain markets have been rising which may give some encouragement.

Wet and dry weather around the globe is a big player in the current price increases as floods hit Brazil, wet weather slows progress in the US and dry weather impacts maize in Russia.

The French wheat price for December hit €248.75/t on Tuesday evening. That’s its highest price since the start of the year.

Co-ops Tirlán and Dairygold have increased their forward price offers for harvest as a result.

Barley increased by €5/t in both cases and wheat increased by €7/t in both cases. Dairygold increased its oilseed rape offer to €435/t, bringing it in line with Tirlán.

Meanwhile, an Irish Farmers Journal grain trading survey of readers has revealed that 45% of respondents were spreading risk on their farms by forward selling or taking fixed or minimum price offers.

Some of those not forward selling grain noted that they had been “stung” before selling and preferred to take the harvest price.