Over the last 10 days, farmers in the northeast, midlands, east and southeast have experienced a notable fall in grass growth rates as soil moisture deficits have gotten worse.

Growth rate is now less than half of what it was 10 days ago on many farms.

It was a very difficult spring to manage grass and so far, summer is proving no different.

The following advice is geared towards farmers experiencing or close to experiencing a grass shortage due to soil moisture deficits.

Grass growth rates remain good in most other parts of the country.

1 Rotation length: A rotation length of 20 to 25 days is optimum at present. Farmers should avoid very short round lengths, as this will lead to a tailspin and grazing grass at 1.5- to two-leaf stage. Very long rotation lengths should also be avoided, as all this does is push out poor-quality grass, which will deteriorate in value or melt away. If there is a drought in three or four weeks’ time, then farmers should move to a longer round length, but we are nowhere near that stage now.

2 Average farm cover: I would view rotation length as being more important than average farm cover. Letting average farm cover drop to as low as 300kg/ha is OK. Yes, recovery will be slower after the rain comes, but it will be all very high-quality grass and all available grass will have been utilised. Holding average farm cover at, say 500kg/ha, will mean feeding high levels of supplement now to maintain a sward of decaying grass that will need to be removed anyway after the rain comes, all of which increases costs.

3 Silage ground: If there is area on the milking platform that can be grazed by milking cows, then it should be. In most cases, this refers to area closed for second-cut silage. Even if this has been fertilised for silage, it should be grazed by cows, as this is the lowest-cost method of reducing demand.

In most cases, the fertiliser has not been utilised by the grass, so it will still be available after grazing.

4 Fertiliser: There is not much point in spreading chemical nitrogen on dry ground, but it won’t do any harm either. Nitrogen is unlikely to be lacking in most swards and there is usually a big increase in available nitrogen after a dry spell.

5 Feed: Decisions will need to be made about when and how much feed to use. Remember, a 23-day rotation length means you graze 1/23 of the farm per day. So, if the grazing platform is 38ha, then 1.65ha should be grazed per day (38 divided by 23).

If there is a grass cover of say 1,100kg/ha on the paddock the cows are grazing, that means grass is providing 1,815kg of feed per day. Divide this by the total number of cows to work out how much grass they are being allocated.

For example, if there are 130 cows on this farm, then each cow will be getting 14kg of grass, which is 4kg short of their requirement.

In this instance, the deficit could be provided by feeding 4kg of meal.

If the deficit was greater, silage or zero grazed grass would have to be introduced. Typically, one round bale of good-quality silage is 200kg of dry matter.

6 Costs: Meal is much more expensive now than it was at the last big drought in 2018 and so it should be used sparingly. Some merchants are offering grass stretcher type rations for around €265/t to €270/t, which is much cheaper than the standard rations costing €280/t to €300/t.

Depending on how long the dry spell lasts for, feed could become scarce, so communicate your requirements to the feed merchant early.

7 Demand: Reduce demand on the milking platform by moving off non-essential stock, such as calves, cull cows and in-calf heifers.

8 Keep it simple: Do what is right for the farm at the right time. Keep walking the farm every five or six days, as the situation can change quickly. Try to avoid feeding systems that involve a lot of work or tie up money in expensive feed. In all likelihood, most farmers will get enough rain over the coming 10 days to bring growth rates back to normal.