After a tough year of bad weather, falling milk prices and cuts in subsidies, today there was finally some good news for farmers, at least those with oat and hay crops. The Department of Folklore at UCD has released the following statement: “Rain and wind in May, fills the barn with oats and hay.”
The IFA, while cautiously optimistic that we might have a fine summer, has issued a warning to farmers not to switch all their acreage to oat and hay in case the market and the fields become flooded later in the season. They also caution farmers not to keep all their oats all in one basket and to make hay while the sun shines. Finally, they say a recession is not the time to be spreading oats of the wild variety.
When asked by the DisPatch, a local farmer has said UCD aren’t the only ones predicting a good summer.
“The old fellas tell me the omens are very good for a sunny summer,” he said. “The water is high in the wells, the grass is growing rapidly, and a bluetit feather has been spotted in the ditch. Besides that, the government is in trouble. Let’s not forget they were in opposition for that beautiful summer of 1996.”
There is always hope.
