Published Monday, 06 August 2012
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Farmers struggle
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Interview: Wesley Aston
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Adrian Jamison's' family has lived off the land in North Antrim for three generations.
But the recent wet weather is taking its toll on some of the early season potato crops.
"It could cost this farm £20,000 probably due to loss due to wet weather," Mr Jamison said.
Yellow leaves on the plants are a sign that the roots are not getting any nutrients - pulling them from the ground reveals there are very few potatoes, and the ones that are there should be bigger at this time in the season. A lot of the roots are also rotten.
The humid conditions favour disease causing an increase in blight, and there is a lot of it in both County Down and North Antrim.
Spraying helps - provided the rain doesn't wash it away - otherwise farmers could risk ending up with nothing due to blight.
Chip shop owner Trevor McBride gets through thousands of potatoes a week, but at the moment the future price is impossible to predict.
"They're having great difficulties in the harvesting," said Mr McBride.
"Weather conditions, ground conditions have not been favourable. There's a few wet spots, and there's definitely a knock on effect, right down the chain, right to frying. "
At this stage it's impractical to estimate the full economic impact in Northern Ireland, as the main potato crop is not harvested until September.
Farmer are hoping the weather will improve before then, so their crops can too.