Growth is slowing rapidly on the farm this week as we wait for some more rain to arrive and drive things on again for the autumn.

We grazed one dry paddock last week that had been skipped the previous week for bales. The grass was melting back into the ground in front of us in the dry weather so we grazed it off quickly before it disappeared. It is the same on a lot of farms in the south and east of the country at the moment. Drier farms are starting to turn yellow and brown, with grass growth almost non-existent in some fields.

We drove down to Kerry for a few days off this week and the difference is huge between the east and west of the country; mowers and balers are going strong in the west and feeders and loaders are working harder feeding silage in the east.

If rain comes as forecast this weekend, we should be fine at home as we were carrying a bit of extra grass into the second half of August as it was.

The mower will be cleaned up and stored for the winter now and hopefully we will get enough growth to build up a good autumn wedge. We will blanket spread the farm with fertiliser this week before the forecasted rain this weekend and hopefully we will get enough to turn things around quickly.

Milk

Cows are continuing to milk very well into the back end of the year. We have a lot of first-and-second lactation animals in the herd this year (41% first and 24% second) so we dosed the whole herd for worms in July and it seems to have had a positive effect on milk yield since.

The protein has come up to 3.77% over the last two weeks as well, with production sitting between 1.5kg and 1.6kg solids/day. Meal has also been moved up to 3kg in the dry weather this week to keep grass ahead of the cows.

Hopefully we are seeing the beginning of the end of low milk prices this month with a slight rise in some co-ops, including Glanbia. There is a long way to go before profitability is restored to farms, but the market seems to be strengthening steadily.

If the signals from the banks are to be believed, the rainy days may be coming to an end, as we start to see some umbrellas being offered out to dairy farmers once more.

Tillage

Most tillage farmers, on the other hand are getting excellent weather for harvesting their crops locally this week, but there seems to be no other positivity in that sector at the moment. Being hamstrung by legislation preventing the use of any GM technology is further decreasing competitivness in this sector.

Cheap, low-quality imports and imports of GM produced crops are keeping a ceiling on prices for the producer here, but still when we go to buy compound feed for cows, the prices don’t fully reflect the fall in the prices of straights.

Dairy farmers will need an active and functioning tillage sector more in the future than we might think. If milk prices come up, there will be opportunities to increase stocking rate on some dairy farms and to work with tillage farmers to provide buffer feeds and extra winter feeds to support those stocking rates.

Contract rearing young stock is becoming more popular and normal every year. Contract growing feed will be the next big development as milk prices rise and dairy expansion continues.