For the first time in his farming lifetime, Brendan Hickey from Urlingford, Co Kilkenny is having to supplement every animal that he has out on grass due to the severe drought in the south.

“We are very severely hampered by it to be honest, I am farming here since 1990 and I have never had to do as much feeding as I have now. Other droughts we have had to supplement cows but we always had enough grass on outside blocks to handle young stock, but as of the middle of last week we are supplementing every batch of animal out on grass,” says Brendan.

It’s been a challenging time for dairy farmers, according to Brendan. After a tough spring, the extra workload is resulting in increased costs and reduced milk yields.

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“Milk yields would be back at the minute. Since we brought in the silage, we are tipping in around 21 litres of milk, 1.75kg of milk solids,” he explains.

Brendan is supplementing 6kg meal, 6kg silage and making up the rest with boggy ground that stayed growing a bit longer.

Financially the drought is costing his dairy enterprise roughly €150 a day due to the additional feed required.

“It is becoming an expensive time,” says Brendan.

Advisory insights

According to Teagasc advisor Pat Moylan, he has seen the cost double for farmers who are dealing with severe drought due to the increase in fodder needed to feed cows.

Prices have increased from €2.10/ €2.20 to feed a cow at this time of the year to €4.20/ €4.60 depending on what level of concentrate is being put in.

“The cost has doubled, by the number of cows. At this stage we are here mid-august and the feeding is going to happen for at least another month in this area,” explains Pat.

“Typically, at this time of the year we would be on grass, and giving them 2kg of meal just to get them into the parlour. At the moment my average client is on 6kg of concentrate in the parlour and 6kg of grass dry matter grazing hopefully and 6kg of silage dry matter. In the Urlingford area, I have a lot of farmers who are on 9kg of concentrate, 6kg of silage and 2-3kg of grass dry matter,” says Pat.

As cows are being fed on a daily basis at the moment, Pat encourages farmers to do a feed budget for the winter.

“See what your silage stocks look like now to make allowance for more supplement feeding into the back end of this year,” he adds.

Keep it simple

For farmers facing similar drought issues across Ireland, Pat offers them some advice.

“Make the feeding system as simple as you can, and not to be adding any stress by having complicated diets. A lot of farmers are happy to feed 6kg of ration, or in some cases 8kg in the parlour and that’s that job done. Then it’s just silage at feed race, or round feeders in a field. After that it is important to still rotate around the farm, and give the cows a fresh pick every day,” says Pat.

Watch the full interview with Brendan and Pat here: