The deluge of rain over the weekend and early this week is just what the doctor ordered for dry farms across the country and especially in the east. Heavier farms will be starting to get soft with the extra rainfall.

The east of the country has got over double the amount of rainfall that the west received in the first 10 days of August. Weather stations in the east of the country averaged 102mm of rain compared with stations in the west and southwest that averaged just under 40mm (see figure 1).

All this rainfall has helped growth rates recover on farms, with growth ranging from 34 to 90kg DM/ha/day.

Soil temperatures remain strong at between 15°c and 16°c, but some farmers remarked that the days are getting slightly shorter already and growth rates are on the decline. Now is the time to start building up grass supplies and planning for the autumn. Keep increasing the rotation length weekly. It should be set between 24-28 days this week.

Second-cut silage that was done in late July/early August is coming close to being at the right stage for grazing now. A lot of second-cut silage has already been ensiled this year, but there are still places that have yet to cut.

Given the forecast, there may be a chance this weekend to get this silage cut and either round-baled or ensiled in a silage pit. The earlier this silage is cut the better because if it is left too late it becomes harder to build up grass covers.

In southwest Wexford, our farmer has an average farm cover of 693kg DM/ha and a cover per livestock unit of 192kg DM. A lot of rain fell, but it was all needed and he is on track now to build up for the autumn. The lower stocking rate has helped him evade the cost associated with drought that other farmers have experienced.

But he feels it would be a different story if drought came next year with an expanded herd. His current stocking rate is 3.6 Lu/ha and grass growth is 67kg DM/ha/day. Cows are milking 20kg at 4.09% fat and 3.67% protein (1.55kg MS). Our mid-Clare farmer got 34mm of rain in the past 12 days. His growth is 62kg DM/ha/day and his stocking rate is 2.72 Lu/ha. Cows are entering pre-grazing covers of 1,400kg DM/ha. His average farm cover is 801kg DM/ha and cover per cow is 258kg DM.

The rain has helped green up the paddocks in south Tipperary. Growth rates are at 57kg DM/ha/day and demand is 60kg DM/ha/day. Our farmer spread some unagitated slurry on 7ha. Cows are milking 17.43kg at 4.3% fat and 3.59% protein (1.38kg MS). The cows were scanned on Saturday and the results were disappointing, with a number of embryonic deaths, so there are decisions to be made.

Mid-Kerry has an average farm cover of 1,021kg DM/ha and a growth of 84kg DM/ha/day. Demand is 62kg DM/ha/day and pre-grazing cover is 1,590kg DM/ha. Cover per cow is 227kg DM and rotation length is 18 days. Cows are producing 1.47kg of milk solids and our farmer is spreading a bag of urea because the rain is back.

STEVEN FITZGERALD, farm manager, TEAGASC CURTIN’S RESEARCH FARM

Growth is staying strong this week at 67kg DM/ha/day, back slightly on last week’s 80kg DM/ha/day. Demand is at 54kg DM/ha/day, so we will be able to build covers for the autumn without major feeding.

The plan is that average farm cover will increase by about 60kg DM/ha/week up to a maximum cover of 1,100kg DM/ha in late September. The cover per cow is 262kg DM and we are stocked at 3.16 Lu/ha. The reseeded paddock is the only one out of the rotation now.

Cows are entering pre-grazing yields of 1,400-1,500kg DM/ha, so they are easily grazed out to 4cm. Dry matter is set at 15% this week. The silage we cut last week was very light, but it will mean these paddocks will recover quickly.

Rotation length is 24 days now and is building weekly. The 139 cows are milking 17.2 litres at 4.38% fat, 3.62% protein (1.41kg MS) and 141,000 SCC. The dandelions we sprayed last week with High Load Mericam are dying out now.

We body condition-scored all the cows yesterday (Tuesday) and they averaged BCS 3.25. We plan on scanning the cows this week.

Alan Jagoe, Carrigaline,

Co Cork

It’s only now that we are starting to get a green tinge to our paddocks. Drought has really taken hold of the farm, especially with the drying wind along the coast here that is depleting moisture levels. By this Saturday, we will be supplementing cows for four weeks. The 168 milking cows are getting 3t of a 50:50 mix of maize/beet, four bales of silage and 2kg of concentrates in the parlour.

We feed the silage by day in a rack out in the paddock and go out with the diet feeder in the evening and spread the maize/beet along the side of the ditch. It’s a lot of work, but it’s required because cows are just entering covers of 700kg DM/ha. We are also pre-mowing paddocks because some have gone very stemmy. The stocking rate is 2.9 Lu/ha. On this farm, we need rain every 10-14 days. We are now focused on feeding cows well to try and build up covers for the autumn. A bag and a half of 18:6:12 was spread per acre since the rain to help drive on growth. With all the feeding, cows are milking very well at 20.5 litres at 4.29% fat 3.62% protein (1.67kg MS) and SCC 140. The winter milkers will be dried off at the end of this week for cows due to calve in November.

I am cutting some winter wheat today (Wednesday) and a small third cut of baled silage which will fill the gap for the winter feed requirements.

Martin Heaney, Castletown House, Navan, Co Meath

We measured the grass last Monday and growth rate was at 40kg DM/ha/day, up from 30kg DM/ha/day from last week. I expect that with the heavy showers of rain, the next measurement will be up at 100kg DM/ha/day.

Drought was becoming a problem on the farm last week, which meant we had to feed 4kg of silage and 3.5kg of meal per cow for the last 10 days. Since the rain, we were able to stop feeding silage, but will continue to feed meal to help slow down cows and build up rotation length.

The cows are entering excellent covers of 1,200kg DM/ha. We blanket spread the entire grazing block with 40 units of CAN per acre to help build covers for the autumn since the rain came. About 40 acres of second-cut silage was made on an out-block on which heifers are being reared, and we bought 23 acres of a standing crop of second cut. Our winter feed requirements should be OK this year.

The 195 cows are milking 19.8 litres at 4.64% fat, 3.74% protein (1.71kg MS) and 161 SCC. Cows will be scanned at the end of the month. The mop-up bulls were taken out at the end of July. They were four yearling bulls from our own herd; we kept rotating two bulls every day.

Niall Tallon, Fenor, Ardcath, Co Meath

It has been a good year for us with regards to grass growth and milk production. We got 1.5in of rain on Saturday night and growth is at 50kg DM/ha/day this week.

Two weeks ago, grass was getting tight on the farm due to drought but we got rain at the right time and that helped us out a lot. We are feeding 3.5-4kg concentrates to cows. We will continue to feed this level of concentrates because grass is still tight and we want to build for the autumn.

Cows are entering good-quality covers of 1,300kg DM/ha. Dry matter for grass is set at 16%. We are currently spreading 25 units of Sweet Grass per acre after cows to keep grass moving. During the dry weather, we were spreading Sulpha Can because our farm tends to dry up. We have 370 holstein high-EBI cows currently milking 22 litres at 3.62% fat and 3.5% protein (1.61kg MS). We also do winter milking here and will have 250 cows and maiden heifers to calve down this autumn.

Winter milking makes our system far more complicated because there are too many grazing groups on the farm. If prices don’t change for winter milk producers, I would certainly consider changing to all spring-calving in the next five years. It would make sense from both a financial and labour perspective.