Significant rainfall over the last week saw over 60mm of rain fall in some places with more rain falling over the weekend.

This equates to between two and a half and three times the normal amount of rain for the time of year.

On Saturday, soil moisture deficits in the western part of Ireland were at -10mm, meaning soils had exceeded field capacity and were saturated.

Many farmers in this region are now housing cows and youngstock, as land is just too wet for grazing.

This could represent an early winter which is the last thing anybody wants. However, it is still early and there’s every chance that if the weather improves then cows will be out grazing full-time again.

For farms in the east, the soil moisture deficits range from 10mm to 40mm, with most of the region at 10mm meaning the soils are very close to field capacity.

To be fair, ground conditions are still very good but the rain is making cows uneasy and unsettled making good clean outs hard to achieve.

On top of this, most farms in the east continue to be behind target in terms of grass covers. There is a school of thought that its better not to feed too much supplement when grazing conditions are poor as it will only make poor clean-outs worse.

The other school of thought is that feeding supplement when weather is bad will help to maintain cow’s dry matter intake.

Either way, allocating grass in 12-hour breaks, using back fences and using on/off grazing where necessary may be necessary over the coming days as there is more rain forecast for this week.

There’s no doubt that the weather has taken a sharp turn for the worst, but I think farmers should try and remain positive as we’ve often had a bad start to autumn only for weather to improve in late September and October.