For the past month, drought has completely dominated this page – both in the rapid decline of the growth figures on our nationwide map, and in the growing concern among farmers’ commentary regarding grass and fodder deficits.

Unfortunately things are still no better this week despite some rain at the weekend. The average growth rate across the country is now at 23kg DM/ha/day, a sixth consecutive drop in growth rate in as many weeks.

Looking forward, sufficient rain to kick-start growth seems to be at least another week away.

Met Éireann is forecasting widespread light rain and drizzle on Thursday evening and into Friday. However, volumes look set to be minor. After that, the country looks set for another dry weekend with temperatures of 18 to 21°C.

More drizzle is forecast for Tuesday but alarmingly, the rain required to fill a 60mm to 70mm soil moisture deficit still seems some distance away.

Be prepared

What farmers must also remember is that when rain does eventually come, grass simply won’t grow overnight. A grass rejuvenation and growing period of two to four weeks should be expected after the first meaningful rainfall.

Steps

However, steps can be taken to accelerate this rejuvenation and growing process.

First things first. Large areas of the farm should not be grazed below 4cm.

An exception can be made for sacrifice paddocks where cows are being held and fed on hay/silage, but severely grazing large proportions of the farm now will result in very slow regrowths later on.

Having fertiliser in the yard, ready to spread when conditions allow, is essential. Not only will fertiliser help to accelerate growth in the short term, it will also help to build up covers for grazing in the back-end.

A high majority of farmers are hoping to graze on into October and November – this will only be allowed if there is enough grass to do so. Be ready, when the growth does eventually come, grow as much as you can.

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Grass+: growth drops as drought worsens