The weather forecast is giving mixed conditions for the week ahead, with damp conditions in the midlands and east, with colder and wetter weather expected for the west and north.

This will make a change from the weather for the last 10 days, which was generally good with the exception of an odd very wet day.

The dry days made up for it though, with good drying conditions and a return to fieldwork and grazing in most places.

At this stage, farmers on relatively dry land have between 20% and 45% of the area grazed in the first rotation while those on heavier soils are playing catch-up.

For those that have a lot of area grazed, despite the fact that they are in a great position, they are also close to danger.

That danger is running out of grass too quickly. Good spring grazing management is a balancing act between grazing all of the area in the first rotation and not ending the first rotation too quickly.

While the risk of ending the first round too early is still weeks ahead, it’s much more costly to apply the handbrake in two weeks’ time than it is to do it now.

In this case the handbrake refers to supplement, ie silage. Teagasc research has shown that feeding silage to milking cows after St Patricks Day is more detrimental to animal performance at peak compared to grass and concentrate based diets.

The only way farmers can know where they stand is to measure grass and compare what is on the farm to the grass budget.

This budget should be tweaked based on cow numbers grazing, grass growth and farm cover. The levers at farmer’s disposal are meal and silage feeding rates and this will determine how much grass needs to be fed.

For those that are behind on area grazed, they can go hammer and thongs to get to 60% grazed by mid-March.