After a difficult twenty-twenty-four, farmers are hoping for better weather conditions this year.
Last year was one of the worst for farming in Ireland, with protests against EU farming policies taking place, as well as wet weather conditions.
Waterford IFA County Chairman John Heffernan told WLR that last year was tough.
"It was one of the longest spells of bad weather that I've ever seen and I'm farming a long time. The cost attached to that, bad weather and bad prices, and at the same time, we had our own issues when it came to regulations from the Government when it came to the environment. People believed that we were responsible for a lot of the issues around climate change. Things did improve however as the year went on but that wasn't without a big effort.
"We started off with the Enough is Enough campaign, that started here in Waterford. We had a lot of outcry within Europe about what was happening with all the bureaucracy the red tape and the bad product prices.
"We rode in and supported the initiative, by holding a demonstration in Waterford which eventually went nationwide."
When it came to crops, last year was poor for farmers nationwide due to adverse weather conditions. Mr. Heffernan continued," Mid-April when all the crops should have been sown, there was nothing.
"There were only two opportunities for sowing, two days in March. Hundreds of thousands worth of euros of seed and fertilizer were standing in merchants' yards. People were starting off from a very bad base going out to plant when the crops should have been up over ground.
"Normally you'd have to have spring crops sown before Paddy's Day, the latest 1st of April."
You can hear more from Johns's conversation with WLR Farmview Host Kieran O'Connor here.
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