The majority of the country had some level of rainfall over the weekend but the drought situation is still a long way from cured.

Counties in Munster got between 20mm to 30mm, while those who needed it most in the east got less than 10mm.

At a soil moisture deficit of close to 90mm, it will take a lot more than this to resolve the issues with growth.

Thankfully, there is more rain in the forecast and farms can start to picture a glimmer of the light at the end of the tunnel.

Feeding

Regardless of the amount of rain that fell, heavy feeding is still going to be required for at least another ten days to two weeks.

Grass plants have been stressed and depleted in recent weeks and they need a chance to build up root reserves again. Grazing hard now will limit their growth over the coming weeks.

Instead, rotation length should be held somewhere around 25 to 30 days. This means allocating no more than 1/25th of the farm each day. The rest of the diet should continue to be made up with supplement feed.

Once growth is starting to lift again, farm cover will build, pre-grazing yields will be stronger and supplement feeding can reduce.

As we’re now in the month of August, by the time growth rates are back to normal it will be time to start building grass. Therefore, it’s unlikely farms will get a chance to go on a faster round than 25-days for the remainder of the year.

Fertiliser

As contradictory as it may feel, spreading fertiliser now is the wrong thing to do. There will be enough nitrogen mineralised in the soil over the next two weeks to get grass growing again.

Spreading more, is a waste of a nitrogen allocation and it will also annoy cows. The combination of chemical nitrogen and natural nitrogen mineralised in the soil together after drought will cause grass to sour. Cows will be slower to graze as a result and they will leave a lot of grass behind them.

Save the product for later in August and go with two rounds before the closing date in mid-September.