As I look out on the newly cut lawn, I can hardly take in its greenness. It’s my barometer for how the grass is growing. Tim is never too impressed by my unscientific judgement of how the weather is impacting grass growth. Yet if the lawn does not need cutting, then there’s probably no grass for grazing.

In recent weeks, the lawn was yellow and the grass was spiky and tough underfoot.

As long as we are farming we’ve experienced droughts. In the past, there would be panic. That has been replaced by strategic management of grass. We’ve learned to react and adapt quickly to changing conditions. This includes having enough surplus bales made early in the season to be able to feed them back to the cows. Otherwise, the grass could be cleared off the farm very quickly.

So far this year, we’ve had several weeks of dry and warm weather where we farm, on the west side of Cork city. It is the prolonged nature of the drought that posed the problem.

Tim keeps a daily diary of the farming activities and that includes the measurement of rainfall.

Drought costs

In the first week of April, grass seeds were sown. There was a wet spell from 22-25 April. Then it dried up and some of the grass seeds failed. The scene on the farm was set for a dry summer.

Tim recorded 10mm of rainfall over 26-27 May; a ray of hope. The grass seeds were replaced with kale on 14 June and 18mm of rain fell that day.

That was it until last week. The fields turned yellow as they were grazed. Grass stopped growing. This phenomenon is a fairly regular occurrence in the summer months. We plan for it by making plenty of good-quality silage bales early on in the season.

That was it until last week. The fields turned yellow as they were grazed. Grass stopped growing

The grass managers, Tim and Colm, intervened quickly to keep the milk production steady. The cows are producing 18 litres per day at 5.66 butter fat and 3.69 protein, equating to 1.7kg of milk solids. The target to keep in mind is a 500kg cow producing her own weight in milk solids. She’s an ideal cow.

Managing drought is expensive; animals have to be fed. Cows were on a diet of grass, silage, ration and palm kernel. We’ve fed 20 tonnes of palm kernel and 30 bales of high-quality silage during the drought.

This will impact our end-of-year profit margin considerably. That’s the bit that non farmers don’t understand. My friend asked me the other day, “have the farmers enough rain yet?” At that point, only 20mm had fallen. She was disgusted when I answered no. I attempted to explain that according to the measurement of rainfall at Cork airport, there was a 69mm deficit and that it would take at least that to restore growth properly. I’ll have to avoid her for a while, as 100mm have fallen since this wet spell started. There was huge relief here in this house. The grass is jumping out of the ground and the message is that farmers have enough rain.

Looking ahead, we will not have a grass wedge, but a plateau. A lot of fields will be growing at the same rate together, much like cutting it all off for silage. Tim says the plan now is to graze grass at lighter covers. Normally, you would want covers of around 1,400kg dry matter per hectare. Instead, we will start to graze at around 1,100. The cows will absolutely love it. The reason for this will be to avoid having to make bales again, as this would deplete the grass availability for the autumn.

The management of our most important feed resource never stops. It’s all about grass.