This drought is after getting very serious in Kilkenny over the last few weeks. We decided to zero-graze in our second cut silage and we’ve been feeding two loads per day of that to the milkers for the last two weeks.

That will be increased to three or four loads this week as grass gets scarcer on the milking platform. Regrowth is almost non-existent on most of the farm and the heifer block is just out of grass as well.

Meal feeding in the parlour has been pushed up to 6kg/day and it’s looking increasingly likely we will have to open the first cut pit of silage if we don’t get rain in the next two weeks.

For the moment, the zero-grazed grass will keep the milking cows fully fed but we will have to start feeding some wraps in the field to the in-calf heifers this week. The cows are milking well at 25l but at a serious cost.

The never-ending wet weather this spring eventually gave up and this long, hot dry spell will eventually end too but it’s a double hit in the one season and unprecedented in that both events were and are so widespread and affected so many farms right across the country.

Anyone would be forgiven for thinking that once the rain ended, we might have expected to freewheel for a while in the middle part of the season. To drop to a kilo of meal or even grass only for a while would have been nice. Unfortunately, instead of a nice downhill cycle or even a flat track, we find ourselves in the farming equivalent of the worst mountain stage in the Tour de France with an uphill battle all the way.

The winter feed issue will be monitored as we progress through the year. With the level of feeding going into the milkers through their lactation, they will be in great condition by the dry period and might do well enough on very short rations for the winter. One option might be to feed some rolled oats with straw if we don’t get to make some more silage by then.

All wholecrop options are looking very scarce this year with the straw scarcity multiplying that even further. With this in mind, we will try to stretch any silage we feed later this month with soya hulls or some other bulky straight. It will be the same for the winter unless something changes.

On a more positive note, our maize crop looks to be thriving so far in this weather and we got to make some good quality hay last week. The maize will be held in reserve for feeding to freshly calved cows in the spring and the hay should help to fill up dry cows for the winter.

We pulled the bulls out this week and will start to cull any bulling cows from next week onwards. Some cows with feet problems, etc, will also be culled early this year to try to reduce demand. These will be put on a diet of rolled barley and strips of strong grass as soon as they dry up. We will try to carry as few passengers as possible into the second half of the year.

It’s all about damage limitation and survival over the next few months. We will continue to fight our uphill battles as well as we can and hope we get over the crest soon. At least the Tour de France lads have a team car and supporters to give them some encouragement, an energy bar or a drink of water along the way.

Our milk processors seem content to tie a ball and chain around each of our ankles at the bottom of the hill and then sit back to see how we compete with the other teams.