A dry summer and farm mechanisation means a good return for grain and beet growers in Ireland.
The fine summer months have resulted in largely positive yields on most crops for farmers.
A million tonnes of beet will be harvested in the next three months.
The harvest will produce 140,000 tonnes of sugar at the mills earning around £9 million for about twenty thousand growers. Most of the beet will be harvested mechanically. The yield for 1969 is expected to be slightly lower than last year as a result of the dry weather.
This year has also seen a very good wheat harvest for the country's thirty thousand growers. Three-quarters of the wheat is used to make Irish flour with the remaining yield being used for animal feed which is sold at a loss.
Farmers, in general, are happy with this year's harvest. Tommy Keenagh, a small farmer from Westmeath, says that it has been a great year for farmers. The only crop to have suffered from the lack of rain is the turnip crop.
It's been a marvellous harvest altogether for the small farmers as a result of the fine weather.
John Monaghan, a mixed farmer from Carlow, says that the very dry summer has slightly reduced average yields on certain crops this year.
Harry Stanley, a dairy farmer from Tipperary, says that the dry weather was a blessing for dairy farmers. Milk yields were also good in the first half of the year. However, the yield fell in the second half of the year as there wasn't enough moisture in the grass.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 4 October 1969. The reporter is Tom McCaughren.
