Farmers are counting the cost of the dry spell in the south and east of the country, while the northwest appears to be significantly less affected.

In Kilkenny, IFA county chair Brendan Hickey said that rain is still very scarce, with little forecast for the next few days.

He told the Irish Farmers Journal that many dairy farmers were trying to buy in silage while it's available.

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“We are seeing a big difference in the amount advertised now compared to two weeks ago.”

Some farmers may hold on to silage and wait to sell it in the winter or early spring to get a better price, he said.

“We’re lucky in Kilkenny, the majority of second cuts were done [before the drought], because the first cuts were done so early, but there was nothing coming back after the second cut.”

Tillage farmers were reasonably happy with winter crops and early spring barley, but straw faired poorer, Hickey said.

He added that the county was seeing a slight rise in TB numbers at the moment, which he described as an ongoing battle.

South

Cork IFA county chair Noel Hurley said parts of north Cork received 10mm of rain on Sunday and 25mm on Monday night, but they would need a lot more rain to get the grass growing.

Dairy farmers were continuing to buffer feed heavily, he said.

He added that there was also some concern among dairy farmers in the north Cork area on Tirlán’s butter deal with Costco in the US.

“IFA and the CEO of Tirlán are meeting next Monday, so we will see what comes of that.”

In terms of tillage, he said: “Yields are well back this year and prices haven’t improved a whole lot.

“Tillage farmers are under a lot of pressure and the Government need to do something about it, especially after the straw incorporation scheme was left until the crops were actually cut.”

In Limerick, Louise Crowley IFA county chair said her area had only received about 10mm of rain in the last week.

“Where I am now, we’ve been very badly hit, I’m into my seventh week of feeding.”

“Farmers are spending money on zero grazing, there's good few around here, including myself, where we won't have second cuts because we've had to zero graze them in, just to have something fresh to feed in front of milking cows.”

“People are hoping that when rain comes, we do get a good back end of the year, otherwise things will be tight, as there’s not a lot of silage to be bought but there is a lot of hay to be bought.”

It will be a big budgeting winter and farmers will have to assess what they have in the yard, she highlighted.

Northwest

It was like two different counties, as the west of Roscommon was not as affected as the south of the county by the recent dry spell, IFA county chair Séan Finan told the Irish Farmers Journal.

“We’ve had a good bit [of rain] over the past few days, so that had freshened up things again.”

However, he said it was taking longer for grass growth to get going on drier land compared to heavier peat soils.

Finan said that he was not aware of any farmers significantly buffer feeding at the moment in Roscommon.

The northwest of the country, including counties Roscommon, Sligo and Mayo, had received a good share of the rain that fell and farmers were "now getting slurry out after the dry spell".

Finan also expressed that there is some anxiety among farmers over rising bluetongue cases in the UK.