The extended good weather is saving farmers millions of euro in higher animal performance and lower costs.

With little or no rain over the last two weeks and further good weather forecast after this weekend, the weather is a boost to all livestock and tillage farmers.

With weekly milk supplies to Ireland’s processing plants running 8% to 10% ahead of this time last year, this corresponds to an approximate increase in milk yield of 1.5l per cow per day.

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At a received price of 50c/l, this is worth 75c/cow day in extra milk sales, or €1.44m/day across the 1.9m cows between north and south.

The good weather is allowing cows on more marginal land to stay out grazing for longer. Based on reduced feed costs of 2kg less meal and 5kg less silage, that’s a saving in costs of €2/day for each cow that would otherwise be indoors by night at this time of year.

If this saving is applied to approximately one third of the cows in the island, the savings in feed costs are about €1.25m/day. Between the increased output and lower costs, the dairy farming sector is saving almost €2.7m/day due to the good weather.

The good weather is also benefiting the tillage sector, with winter planting being carried out at the optimum time of the year in optimum conditions.

For beef and sheep farmers, the good weather is allowing for extended grazing, reduced costs and higher animal weight gain when at grass.