Friday

Met Éireann has said that rain and drizzle will gradually clear on Friday morning in the southeast with bright spells and scattered showers extending across the country from the northwest with moderate northwesterly winds. Temperatures will vary with highs of 8C to 11C.

Temperatures are set to drop on Friday night with lowest temperatures ranging from minus 3 to 1C in a light westerly or variable breeze. It will be a dry and frosty night “with long clear spells leading to widespread frost and icy patches”.

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Saturday

Saturday is set to be a bright and crispy morning with patches of frost in many areas. The west is set to be cloudier with outbreaks of rain and drizzle spreading eastwards as the day goes on becoming more isolated as it clears. Temperatures will see highs of 6C to 10C, with lowest temperatures in the north and mainly southerly winds.

Saturday night will see cloudy conditions increasing from the southwest with rain and drizzle spreading across the country. A milder night with lows of 3C to 6C in moderate southwesterly winds, strong on Atlantic coasts.

Sunday

Current indications are that Sunday will be have a wet and blustery start to the meteorological spring with showers of rain, turning heavy at times. Temperatures will see highs of between 9C to 12C with fresh to strong south to southwesterly winds and gales on coasts.

Next week

Monday is set to be another wet day with rain clearing to the east through the morning for a time. However, cloudy conditions are expected to develop again feeding in from the west with further outbreaks of rain and drizzle.

Management notes

Beef

Martin Merrick continues the calf series discussing buying and getting calves home, as well as grass growth and managing disease in sheds.

Sheep

This week, Darren Carty discusses validity of soil samples, supplementing ewes with concentrates at grass in due to poor growth conditions and the TAMS tranche 11 deadline.

Dairy

In dairy, Aidan Brennan has a look at grazing targets, fertiliser spreading and bluetongue vaccinations.

Tillage

Grain markets are looking slightly more positive, however there are no big signs of improvement, Siobhán Walsh writes.