A dry week has done much to improve the mood and ground conditions on farms across the country, but particularly west of the Shannon – where only last week ground was in a saturated state.

Field work is ongoing, with fertiliser spreaders being hitched on in most yard this week.

Another dry week is forecast with virtually zero precipitation forecast, and while it is still on the windier and colder side, there may be an opportunity to control weeds or spray off paddocks for reseeding should wind conditions calm.

While there is still sufficient moisture in soil, it is also the ideal time to over sow any paddocks with clover if necessary.

Get these paddocks grazed off quickly and get them over sown as ground can rapidly dry out and render this task tricky.

Derrypatrick Herd, Co Meath

The second round of grazing began this week, with pre grazing covers of 1,400kg DM/ha being hit. We will be applying our second round of fertiliser whenever there is some precipitation, with 1.5 bags/acre of 18-6-12 being spread on grass-only sward and a bag/acre of the same being spread on grass-clover swards. Three or four paddocks on the clover trial with poor clover scores will be over sown in the coming weeks, while we are currently grazing off two paddocks for the second time that will be allowed to green up before being sprayed off and reseeded in mid-May.

Portarlington, Co Laois

We still have our silage ground in on the wedge at the minute, with the plan being to take as much of this ground out as possible to get a good first cut without leaving ourselves tight for grazing. The home block with high soil indexes received Sul-Can due to a lack of availability of protected urea, with the outfarm receiving 18-6-12. Grass growth is slow on some paddocks that had some damage, but I am confident these will bounce back. Our February calving cows are in super order from being out at grass, with 55 cows being synchronised and AI’d Thursday.

Newford Herd, Co Roscommon

It’s been a busy week with prep for our open day and all other matters in the yard. Grazing ground was blanket spread with 23 units protected urea/acre on Monday, with slurry going out on some of our silage ground as well after it had been grazed off. We have mown our clover silage ground for the finishing shed this week which will be picked up Thursday, while breeding in the sucklers has also began, with nine cows for AI Wednesday. Our 27 maiden heifers were synchronised and bred on Friday last. Grazing conditions have improved hugely with the drier weather.