Watch: weather taking its toll in north west

With farmers in the south lapping up last weekend’s much needed rain, farmers in the north and north west are having to contend with yet another abnormally wet summer.

Heavy and consistent rainfall in the north west and west has resulted in a sharp deterioration in ground conditions in the past few weeks. Parts of the west saw 38mm of rain last week alone which compounded already severely wet ground conditions.

The dry spell in several areas over the past few days has helped to alleviate some of the difficulties. In some cases suckler farmers have been forced to house cows for a period due to ground damage.

Poor ground conditions are also a major concern for several farmers who have yet to take a second cut of silage. In additions, farmers on difficult and heavy ground that still have slurry to spread are becoming more anxious.

There have been several reports of increasing numbers of lame cows in dairy herds in the area. The prolonged wet weather over recent weeks has resulted in a higher incidence of hoof problems, bruising caused by stones and scald as a direct result of the wet conditions.

There was drizzle on Tuesday afternoon that turned into heavy showers. The occasional break in rain was dominated by overcast clouds meaning there was no drying and the next shower was never far away.

Pedigree Charolais breeder and sheep farmer Anthony McColgan about the very difficult year for farmers in the north west. He farms 150 acres of mostly heavy land in six blocks near Malin, Co Donegal and runs 40 pedigree cows and 60 commercial ewes.

“If it keeps raining, more cattle will have to go in. I have heard that some farmers have cows housed because the ground is so wet and there is no sign of it being able to dry out,” he said.

Anthony currently has four 15 month old bulls housed that should be at grass and some cows have been put to rougher ground away from the farmyard.

He said that it took him three weeks to make silage this year.

“A lot of farmers were in the same dilemma, cut early or else wait until conditions improve and the quality of the grass reduces. We cut 22 acres that weekend and lifted it straight away. It continued to rain and we had to stop because we were doing too much damage. It was three weeks later before we got the remaining 12 acres cut and lifted. It will be poorer quality and the ground was still marked,” he said.

Fertiliser has only been spread on the first ground to be cut and no slurry has been out on any silage ground. Re-growth has been poor and wheel tracks have filled with water. “I have not grazed the later cut ground and even the ground cut at the start has had poor growth and carried little stock,” he said.

He said that more farmers in the area are cutting back in cattle and increasing sheep numbers as recent summers have been too difficult to get enough silage cut and cattle out to grass. “We have had one good summer in the last six years. This one is by far the worst,” he said.

Listen to the interview with Anthony here: