2021 was a year that farmers will want to remember, even despite a late, cold and sometimes wet Spring.

Spring began with an unusually good April, although on the cool side but with plenty of sunshine. Good enough for silage making to be made by the end of the month from an early maturing grass sward.

For most farmers however, silage making had to wait until late May as the cold, wet conditions delays cutting. However once the fine weather came at the end of May and into June, there were bumper crops around the county.

Other farmers and growers took advantage of the fine ground conditions in April.

At Lappin's vegetable farm, near Enniskillen, the soil was in great condition for planting of brassicas such as cauliflower and cabbage as well as potatoes and many other vegetable crops.

The fine weather throughout June and into July encouraged plenty of haymaking and reseeding work to be carried out.

While Fermanagh basked in the sunshine and the grass began to grow strongly, other parts of Northern Ireland became so dry that the grass stopped growing and early silage was then fed to livestock.

Some examples of the work carried out can be seen in John McVitty's photographs on these pages.