Friday

After a mostly cloudy start on Friday, with showers or longer spells of rain in places, some brighter intervals will develop in the south.

It will brighten up elsewhere in the afternoon, but further showers or spells of rain will occur, especially over the eastern half of the country, with some heavy falls.

Overnight, Met Éireann is forecasting persistent and occasionally heavy rain near the east coast, but elsewhere it will be largely dry, with variable cloud, clear spells and just the odd shower.

The rain in the east will spread westwards over the country overnight, producing spot flooding, mainly in eastern areas.

Saturday

Saturday will be a rather dull and wet day in midland, eastern and northern areas, with outbreaks of rain, heavy at times.

In the west and southwest, drier and brighter conditions will prevail, with just a few showers .

However, mist and fog patches may be slow to clear in these parts during the morning. Top temperatures of 7°C to 10°C.

Saturday night will see outbreaks of rain over the midlands, north and east gradually clearing northeastwards.

There will be dry clear intervals in the west and south extending countrywide by dawn. Lows of 0°C to 5°C with a risk of frost, coldest under the long clear spells in the south.

Sunday

Mainly dry and bright in the north and east to begin on Sunday, with any early mist, fog and residual drizzle patches clearing, but thickening cloud in the west and south heralding the arrival of outbreaks of rain in Munster during the morning.

The cloud and rain will gradually spread northeastwards over the country during the afternoon, with the heaviest of the rain likely to affect southern and, later, eastern coastal counties. Top temperatures of 7°C to 11°C.

Management notes

Beef

Adam Woods takes a look at dairy beef targets, supplementing suckler cows with minerals and previews our next mart demo in Clare Marts, Ennis.

Sheep

In sheep management notes, Darren Carty warns that the threat of liver fluke is expected to be high given favourable conditions for the population of parasites to multiply.

Tillage

The few dry days in succession over the past week enabled some growers to get a bit more wheat planted, writes Andy Doyle in the tillage management notes.

Dairy

Dairy specialist Aidan Brennan reports on what was said at Dairy Day and discusses cashflow and soil sampling.