Drought in Ireland

onyerbikepat

For those you you thinking of leaving the Hay out for a few more days.

Longest absolute drought Limerick - 3rd April to 10th May 1938
Just 38 Days.

http://www.met.ie/climate/rainfall.asp

gold_bricker

no such thing as drought in this country , not in any real sense , last one was in 1995 and at the end of the day , the consequences were harmless compared to what most farmers had to endure in the likes of 2012

anyone who complains about a lack of rain in ireland is spoiled with the kind of land they have

RobertKK

In Kilkenny, we reached drought conditions last summer, official using Met Eireann's definition, I think it is 18 days with no recorded rainfall above 0.2mm.
The place was burning up here, I like it warm - low 20s, with a bit of rain now and again, great for the grass, long dry spells are bad news, just as long wet spells are.

Brown Podzol

Green drought.

freedominacup

gold_bricker wrote: »

no such thing as drought in this country , not in any real sense , last one was in 1995 and at the end of the day , the consequences were harmless compared to what most farmers had to endure in the likes of 2012

anyone who complains about a lack of rain in ireland is spoiled with the kind of land they have

Where we turned out the last few dry cows in the first week of April we were feeding silage for 9 months. In 2011 a good grass year generally we fed milkers from mid July to early September. It goes with the territory and we have early turnout.

The droughts usually break late August/early September but we got no rain until early October last year which was too late to give the usual surge of grass so most stock housed a month early. As I said it's part of the job here so we try to have a month or two s feeding here for milkers over the summer. Usually grow wholecrop in case second cut gets burned/grazed. The wetter years we do fine but 2012 tested everybody to different degrees.

We wonder what they were complaining about in the green fields last year. That's not even a particularly dry farm lmo and they weren't that long without rain last year.

farmerjj

freedominacup wrote: »

Where we turned out the last few dry cows in the first week of April we were feeding silage for 9 months. In 2011 a good grass year generally we fed milkers from mid July to early September. It goes with the territory and we have early turnout.

The droughts usually break late August/early September but we got no rain until early October last year which was too late to give the usual surge of grass so most stock housed a month early. As I said it's part of the job here so we try to have a month or two s feeding here for milkers over the summer. Usually grow wholecrop in case second cut gets burned/grazed. The wetter years we do fine but 2012 tested everybody to different degrees.

We wonder what they were complaining about in the green fields last year. That's not even a particularly dry farm lmo and they weren't that long without rain last year.

Are ye overstocked so?

freedominacup

farmerjj wrote: »

Are ye overstocked so?

Nope. Usually have most stock in less than 100 days in winter. That piper has to be paid another time. Much easier to pay him with ring feeders on dust than the hardship guys on wet land get in the wet years.

larrymiller

At the end of the day a drop of rain wouldn't go astray

Conmaicne Mara

Bloody place is burned orange here.....



....ah hang on that's the glypho



Though I do see the shallow spots around exposed and just beneath the surface bedrock turning yellow.

freedominacup

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Bloody place is burned orange here.....



....ah hang on that's the glypho



Though I do see the shallow spots around exposed and just beneath the surface bedrock turning yellow.

They're the first spots to go around here too.

_Brian

The problem isn't rain or drought.
The problem is the changed weather pattern seeing more blocks of extreme weather.
Even here in Cavan land could cope with 5mm of rain every few days, the grass itself would use that up and ground wouldn't get wet.

The problem is with showers where 30-40 mm rain fall in a few hours and days where 100+ mm falls a few times a week. And every week.

Heaviest ground here is still marking badly under machinery, our neighbour baled yesterday and they rutted the field badly. We just had soo much heavy rain until the start of this dry spell that it would take another solid week of this wearer before all ground is hard.

visatorro

_Brian wrote: »

The problem isn't rain or drought.
The problem is the changed weather pattern seeing more blocks of extreme weather.
Even here in Cavan land could cope with 5mm of rain every few days, the grass itself would use that up and ground wouldn't get wet.

The problem is with showers where 30-40 mm rain fall in a few hours and days where 100+ to mm falls a few times a week. And every week.

Heaviest ground here is still marking badly under machinery, our neighbour baled yesterday and they rutted the field badly. We just had soo much heavy rain until the start of this dry spell that it would take another solid week of this wearer before all ground is hard.

Agree with the heavy showers. My Land can't cope with rain like that, now it's on the verge of burning up

Conmaicne Mara

_Brian wrote: »

Heaviest ground here is still marking badly under machinery, our neighbour baled yesterday and they rutted the field badly. We just had soo much heavy rain until the start of this dry spell that it would take another solid week of this wearer before all ground is hard.

One thing about the bus, while we were rambling up to Dublin during the week, is it gives great views into land. I remember seeing a few fields with very visible rutting in them.

jack o shea

like fcuk it was drought conditions last year robert, take yourself over to australia or california if you want to see a drought. i hope it doesnt rain til sept and it still wouldnt be a drought compared to elsewhere in the world.

Mad4simmental

jack o shea wrote: »

like fcuk it was drought conditions last year robert, take yourself over to australia or california if you want to see a drought. i hope it doesnt rain til sept and it still wouldnt be a drought compared to elsewhere in the world.

Very true. In Queensland a few months ago farmers were shooting all their cattle in the fields from drought.

No such thing as drought in Ireland only "I'd love another drop of rain" now and agin.

Sam Kade

onyerbikepat wrote: »

For those you you thinking of leaving the Hay out for a few more days.

Longest absolute drought Limerick - 3rd April to 10th May 1938
Just 38 Days.

http://www.met.ie/climate/rainfall.asp

Met Eireann would want to have a closer look at their drought statistics. In 1984 we had no rain from April to September farmers were trying to irrigate fields by spreading water with slurry tanks after spreading fertilizer. 1989 there was another long dry spell.

Farrell

Dry weather's nice, but even an odd flutter / due to help the grass, how long can our town / cities survive in a dry spell?

sheebadog

Sam Kade wrote: »

Met Eireann would want to have a closer look at their drought statistics. In 1984 we had no rain from April to September farmers were trying to irrigate fields by spreading water with slurry tanks after spreading fertilizer. 1989 there was another long dry spell.

Two summers I remember well. Glorious.

RobertKK

jack o shea wrote: »

like fcuk it was drought conditions last year robert, take yourself over to australia or california if you want to see a drought. i hope it doesnt rain til sept and it still wouldnt be a drought compared to elsewhere in the world.

It is all relative.

The storm we had 12th of February was bad, but it is nothing compared to a hurricane/cyclone/typhoon, but yet it is bad in it's own way.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/its-a-scorcher-and-ireland-is-officially-in-drought-29431138.html

I said 18 days with no rain, Independent says 15 days.

30C is unbearable for a lot of people in Ireland, we complain it is too hot, but in some other places use to it, it would be nothing special.

Drought, heatwave, cold, heavy rainfall, wind and so on, it is all relative to what is the norm.

Over 2 weeks with not even 0.2mm is not the norm.

2011, we had a drought too, and reports of wells going dry in some part of the east and south east, but it was a different story in the west.

mahoney_j

RobertKK wrote: »

It is all relative.

The storm we had 12th of February was bad, but it is nothing compared to a hurricane/cyclone/typhoon, but yet it is bad in it's own way.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/its-a-scorcher-and-ireland-is-officially-in-drought-29431138.html

I said 18 days with no rain, Independent says 15 days.

30C is unbearable for a lot of people in Ireland, we complain it is too hot, but in some other places use to it, it would be nothing special.

Drought, heatwave, cold, heavy rainfall, wind and so on, it is all relative to what is the norm.

Over 2 weeks with not even 0.2mm is not the norm.

2011, we had a drought too, and reports of wells going dry in some part of the east and south east, but it was a different story in the west.

I experienced 48 degrees in Dubai a few years ago.was there for 5 days and it got l0vely and cool At night 28 degrees!!!
Skiing in Austria last year at top of a glacier and it read minus 28.wouldnt fancy too much of either of that!!

Timmaay

mahoney_j wrote: »

I experienced 48 degrees in Dubai a few years ago.was there for 5 days and it got l0vely and cool At night 28 degrees!!!
Skiing in Austria last year at top of a glacier and it read minus 28.wouldnt fancy too much of either of that!!

And to tbink I was about 2800m up the Alpes in early March with a tshirt on ha!

But anyways to me a Drought is when it's so dry grass growth is almost zero when otherwise it would be 50+. That happens here on average about 1 in 4 yrs at a guess. For short lengths of time (say up to 3wks) you can work around it, for years like last summer you will be giving the cows a large buffer feed to make up the shortfall. All utterly relative of course, Africans etc would laugh at what we think is a drought.