Waterford farmers are having to resort to selling livestock prematurely due to the ongoing drought conditions.
That's according to the county chairman of the Irish Farmer's Association.
It's been a difficult year for farmers - months of bad weather, including last year's Storm Ophelia, March's Storm Emma and the heatwave which began in June - have had a severe impact on the agricultural calendar.
Waterford Chair of the IFA, Kevin Kiersey, says the extreme weather conditions have brought a number of pressures.
"What it has done for farms is it has put a huge additional work on farmers as a result of those extremes, and not only additional work but additional expense in buying in feed and not being able to produce enough feed at a time when we should be preserving fodder for next winter, we are just not in a position to be able to do that."
He says farmers should try and avoid the premature sale of livestock if possible.
Although dairy and livestock farmers are struggling in the summer heat, some tillage farmers are set to capitalise. Kevin Kiersey, says there's a huge demand nationally for straw.
