The current conditions on farms can likely be summed up by the one farmer who told me that a canoe would be an appropriate form of transport.

Of course, it’s not the case for those farming on loose, free-draining soil, but even farmers there have the reels and pigtails out in the battle to get ground grazed.

Looking at the Met Éireann data, while we haven’t seen as much rain on average this week as the previous week, we are still well above normal for this time of the year.

The air temperatures are running at 1°C to 2°C above normal, but waterlogged soils will be slow to warm up, with soil temperatures of 7°C generally being seen across the board.

If I could sum up advice for grazing in two words they’d likely be "back fence".

Allocations are also key and an oversupply of grass will lead to poor cleanouts

Farmers are getting away with grazing for short periods, but back fencing is essential to prevent unnecessary damage.

Allocations are also key and an oversupply of grass will lead to poor cleanouts.

If this happens, it’s a matter of cutting your losses and trying to nail these paddocks in the second round.

I don’t think there’s any farm in Ireland able to get cows back into a paddock to clean it out after a poor grazing.

On the fertiliser front, a lot of farmers will be anxious to get going on fertiliser for early first cuts, but there’s little point in having fertiliser out early if ground is saturated and the nutrients are washed away.