Records from Met Éireann have confirmed that summer was another washout, like the last two.
Every weather station in the country recorded rainfall levels above the norm. The Met Office in the UK predicted a barbecue summer, which of course failed to show up.
A glorious June helped to massage the figures, with July and August being damp squibs.
Obviously the harvesting of straw was severely affected – with some respite for farmers with the dry spell in September. Lots of baling activity was observed around the country with the late harvesting trying to salvage something from the sodden days of August.
There has been a drop of 100,000 acres this year in the amount of land under tillage in the south following last year's poor returns.
