The high temperatures and lack of rainfall are continuing to impact grass production in the east and south of the country. While it’s an understandable source of frustration, the situation is not unique to Ireland.

In fact, the situation is even more severe in countries like France, Germany and Italy.

These countries do tend to be more equipped to dealing with drought, but the conditions in recent months are testing even the best of operators.

In Brittany for example, France’s primary dairy region, a weather warning is currently in operation with temperatures soaring as high as 40 degrees Celsius by day.

There has been no rain in over six weeks and as a result key crops like maize and silage have been decimated.

A similar scenario is playing out in the Bavaria region of southern Germany, home to almost 50% of Germany’s dairy herds.

Temperatures there are set for the mid-30’s again this week and like in France, rainfall has been extremely scarce over the past two months.

Reports from Europe are that crop harvest yields are expected to be at their lowest since the mid-90’s, while France one of the biggest maize producers in western Europe is expecting its lowest maize yield since 1977.

The only positive that can be taken from this extreme weather in Europe, is a potential impact on longer-term milk production.

Over the past 18 months, milk production in European countries had increased by a couple of percentage points.

While this might sound small, the result is a vastly oversupplied milk market in which Irish processors compete to sell products. The impact on Irish farmers was a big drop in milk price.

Should milk production across Europe fall however as a result of drought, markets should improve and so too should milk price.

This is not going to result in an instant change to price, but low crops yields coupled with poor milk price should see those farms in Europe who had been opting to hold onto more cows, return to normal culling levels.

This in turn should result in a longer-term suppression of the previous 18 months rising milk production.

There has already been some benefit, with a fall in production from big players like France and Germany over the last two months helping to stabilise Irish milk price.