Just 254 hectares of forestry has been planted so far this year, according to the Department of Agriculture.
On the plus side, rural Ireland and the farming sector won't get a patronising lecture about how singularly important it is to the post-coronavirus recovery.
The farm sector is teetering on the cusp of a serious drought this week, with grass covers crashing on highly stocked farms and cereal crops on light land under severe stress.
The rewetting of drained bogs and phasing out of direct payments on reclaimed peatlands are among a raft of radical measures included in a controversial position paper on the CAP post-2020.
The farmer in me always found Bank Holidays slightly baffling. Suppliers shut for the day during some of the busiest times of the year? The concept strikes me as downright bizarre at the moment when there are still close to one million people on the Covid dole.
An excellent dairy breeding season has been reported by farmers, with submission rates to first service running at 85-95pc on many farms.
Farmers who want to farm as their fathers did are doomed, as the sector must react to consumer sentiment, according to the Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed.
