Western dairy farmers say there’s no such thing as having too much fodder

Dairy farmers in the west of Ireland are reporting steady fodder supplies and no real shortage of grass following a drier than normal summer, but advise that winter can start and finish at any time in the west.

Tony Colleran, IFA dairy chair for Galway told the Irish Farmers Journal that his farm in east Galway suited the dry weather and following thunderstorms in late June, there was enough moisture in the ground to get him through the dry spell in July.

“Thunder showers at the end of June left a good bit of moisture in the ground, come the end of July we could have done with a drop of rain but we weren’t near as bad as anywhere else.

“The problem with the west of Ireland is that we don’t know how long the winter is going to be.

“We’ve had a wet spring and a dry summer, it’s been extreme at both ends, so hopefully we’ll get a normal back end,” he concluded.

The IFA dairy chair for Leitrim, Shane McHugh, described a similar story saying that since the dry weather subsided a few weeks ago “grass is booming again”.

McHugh said his home farm was coping well as he had surplus fodder from last year.

“Everyone in this area seems to be in a good position when it comes to fodder.

“I heard a local contractor saying this year he was cutting silage and hay in fields that he’d never seen cut before.”

He issued a similar warning as Colleran, stating that; “in Leitrim and the west you don’t know when the winter will start and finish, so there is no such thing as having too much fodder.”

Fodder budget on target

Brian Joyce, a dairy farmer from Mayo says his fodder budget is on target for the winter, after coming into this year with no fodder following a wetter than usual winter. “We had probably three weeks of feeding silage in late July, but it was more so precautionary. We let cover creep up it so it was the end of July before we got tight for grass.

“You could have ran yourself into a hole but its just about getting it in time,” Joyce said.

Further from the coast, Roscommon seemed to experience more drought-like conditions than other western counties.

Miriam Gunn, Roscommon IFA dairy chair, spoke to the Irish Farmers Journal: “Only in the last week or so grass is starting to come back.

“It’s the first time I can remember where we haven’t made third-cut silage. We kept our cows at grass but it was either using silage or the grass that’s standing so that’s what we did.

“Hopefully spring will look like 2025, if we get a similar spring to this year, people will definitely be under pressure,” Gunn concluded.