This is a subscriber-only article
The arrival of rain over the weekend, which escalated to thunderstorms and downpours in places, brought much-needed relief to many farms.
However, the rain was extremely localised and some areas remain very dry.
The south of the country saw the most rain over the last week, with almost 30mm recorded by Met Éireann at Shannon Airport. There were also significant volumes of rain recorded at Johnstown Castle, Co Wexford (21.5mm), and Cork Airport (21mm). In comparison, the west of the country remained relatively dry. Claremorris in Co Mayo recorded just 12% of its average rainfall for the week at 2mm, while Belmullet, Co Mayo, and Knock Airport recorded just a quarter of their usual rainfall.
Inroads have been made into soil moisture deficits that had reached over 80mm in parts of the country after a prolonged dry period. Deficits remain greatest in the midlands and into the southeast, at 70mm to 80mm depending on how free-draining the soil is.
Compared to the normal deficit for this time of year, the northeast emerges as one of the drier areas
When compared to the normal deficit for this time of year, the northeast emerges as one of the drier areas.
Deficits are on average 40mm greater than usual compared to parts of the southwest where deficits are only 20mm or less greater than usual.
While grass growth will now begin to recover, many farms had already taken action to prevent shortfalls in feed. Buffer feeding has been introduced on dairy farms, while some sheep producers have begun creep feeding stronger lambs.
However, for the tillage sector, the rains have arrived too late for many crops.
IFA grain chair Mark Browne said at best, many growers will have significant yield reductions, while in other situations, entire crops are a write-off. The situation was most critical through the midlands and into the east and northeast.
Browne called on merchants and feed mills to prioritise Irish grain and pay sustainable prices to tillage farmers.
SHARING OPTIONS: