Welcome rain fell in many parts of the country on Tuesday and Wednesday, but the forecast is for another pretty dry week ahead.

Hay has been saved, made in the intermittent intense sunburst through the last seven days. The long days around the midsummer solstice and dry breezy evenings made for ideal haymaking weather in many parts.

The first cut of silage has been completed, with huge volumes but mixed quality.

While there hadn’t been much rain, what really caused concern was the drying wind over the weekend and up until Tuesday, with no dew at all at night.

For fields where first-cut silage was late cut, it meant grass regrowth got off to a very slow start. Farmers in the east of the country were reporting granular fertiliser still clearly visible in the field over a week after application. Slurry applied also needed a little moisture to allow it to take effect.

To date, rainfall levels in June have been below average. Up to 22 June, Athenry had only 22mm of rain, little more than quarter the average of 80mm. Johnstown Castle in Wexford only had 14.5mm, one-sixth of normal. Valentia, Co Kerry, had 60mm to 22 June, two-thirds of the normal monthly rate. Mullingar, in contrast, only had 11mm across the first three weeks of June, and Dublin Airport only 1mm.

After the very wet May, drier weather was both likely and welcome, but grass growth and crop development was being stifled where little or no rain had fallen in June.

The forecast is for the mainly dry weather to continue through the last week of June, with some rain forecast for Thursday (today) and again in the middle of next week.