Drought, how is it affecting you?

blue5000

Looks like a real yoyo year, snow on the first of March, after the wettest winter for a while. Now it's too dry, it's no wonder non farmers wonder why farmers are always moaning.

I have barley to spray but I think it might do harm unless I spray late some evening. Ok for grass so far. I suppose ppl in the west are loving the dry spell and east of us things are even worse.

greenfield21

Ah here, can we not a few days sunny weather without complaining.

Genghis Cant

I've a field on a south facing hill and burned red. On the other hand I've hay down in another bit of ground. I don't want rain but I want rain :-)

charolais0153

Topped fields taking 3 weeks damn near to get a decent cover on them so we stopped topping about a week ago. The majority of the fields that werent topped had silage taken off them.
Have weaned the ewes yesterday so that took about a third of the demand away along with 50%of lambs sold.
Aftergrass has come back and will last remaining lambs a few weeks.
Introduced creep to weanlings last week so a few culls will be sold and the weanlings shouldnt suffer too bad if milk drops

Conflats

Feeding silage at home for the last 7 days* only made the bales about 2 weeks before it.

Struggling to get grass to grow and cows not back in calf so on meal and silage.

The sun is nice but the fact were back feeding silage less than 6 weeks after stopping feeding it isn't great.

Rain is needed badly in the south east

anthony500_1

Conflats wrote:

Struggling to get grass to grow and cows not back in calf so on meal and silage.

Your not the only one. I'm not feeding silage as I don't have any, but moving the few sucklers I have from bare fields to not much better would make you think what am I doing wrong. I've silage ground closed and manure out since the 12 may and I just walked it there, to say I'm disappointed is an understatement. I'll do well to get 5 bales to the acre if even that I recon. We got no rain to speak of the past 7 weeks and my place is burning up to beat the band. I'm debating mowing this week or just wait another week or two and see. Thought the winter was tricky but this summer is proving every bit as tricky imo

Mooooo

Irrigating here

whelan2

blue5000 wrote: »

Looks like a real yoyo year, snow on the first of March, after the wettest winter for a while. Now it's too dry, it's no wonder non farmers wonder why farmers are always moaning.

I have barley to spray but I think it might do harm unless I spray late some evening. Ok for grass so far. I suppose ppl in the west are loving the dry spell and east of us things are even worse.

Local spraying contractor was heading home at 6am this morning after spraying.

Reggie.

Mooooo wrote: »

Irrigating here

Seen better legs hanging out a nest

patsy_mccabe

Drew in bales today across the top field. It was like travelling on cobbles. The same field was well cut up during the start of the year as I had to let out fresh calvers. Yoyo year, is right.
Hard to even drive down pigtails, the ground is so hard.

KatyMac

It's awful strange - have a field that's as hard as the hobs of hell but there are two huge puddles of water where there was never water before. I'd assumed they would have dried and disappeared by now, now wondering if they are going to be a feature on the landscape from now on!

whelan2

KatyMac wrote: »

It's awful strange - have a field that's as hard as the hobs of hell but there are two huge puddles of water where there was never water before. I'd assumed they would have dried and disappeared by now, now wondering if they are going to be a feature on the landscape from now on!

It's not a water leak is it?

KatyMac

whelan2 wrote: »

It's not a water leak is it?

Not as far as I can tell. To my knowledge there are no pipes anywhere near. The 'puddles' are kinda on top of a bit of a hill in depressions in the ground. I was thinking the water shed must be very high but after all the drying I don't know what to think.

Anyway, the local wildlife have moved in, frogs and a heron and several hares!

arctictree

Very very dry here in East wicklow. No rain to speak of for 4 or 5 weeks now and none forecast. What a year.

Markcheese

Just saw a fella irrigating spuds in East cork...

Reggie.

whelan2 wrote: »

It's not a water leak is it?

Or a spring

Pat Treacy

whelan2 wrote: »

Local spraying contractor was heading home at 6am this morning after spraying.

Not alone this year often started spraying very early morning finish around seven or eight am.

Pat Treacy

Pat Treacy wrote: »

Not alone this year often started spraying very early morning finish around seven or eight pm.

Eight am

_Brian

The only thing I see suffering about here is the whins, they’re browning off nicely.

Grass has slowed but it’s not a crisis.

feartuath

Silage 3 weeks ago .8 acres of hay down at the minute.

On the out farm on the hill ,10 acres cattle have no choice only to drink from a stream.
It is now very low and drying up in places.
Silage ground now slow to come

liam7831

Drought, ? It's Ireland after a few dry days not Somalia

Keepgrowing

liam7831 wrote: »

Drought, ? It's Ireland after a few dry days not Somalia

A few dry days?
Don’t know where you’re living. 10 mm or rain here in past 5 weeks. NE wind would skin you most days. When suns not out it’s bloody hash and cold.

Negligible rain in may, as a result all very dry with growth non existent

Gorgeousgeorge

Have 13 acres shut off since may for hay. Gonna mow it tomorrow it looks great an all but know in me heart and soul their is feck all on it. Got no rain its very thin.

Snowfire

Gorgeousgeorge wrote: »

Have 13 acres shut off since may for hay. Gonna mow it tomorrow it looks great an all but know in me heart and soul their is feck all on it. Got no rain its very thin.

Same as that, mowed 9 acres for hay today that got fert 5 weeks ago. Light crop, hardly any wonder when I can still see granules of fert on the ground after mowing.

stretch film

liam7831 wrote: »

Drought, ? It's Ireland after a few dry days not Somalia

Floods,? It's ireland after a few months rain not Bangladesh......not a welcome comment a few weeks ago I'm sure.

I jest Liam ...
We're all whacked after whatever version of a winter/spring we got and this is not welcome by any stretch of the imagination because its too bloody early in the summer and the means for dealing with it are not there post fodder crises.
The worries are short term and long term.

What are people's solutions /strategies.?

Coolfresian

Grass growth has slowed considerably here and I wouldn't class ours a dry farm. Not too bad yet as a large proportion of the herd are winter milkers and will pull them out to dry off a week early. That should dramatically help the rotation

Buford T. Justice XIX

Teagasc current advice on managing grass.

https://www.teagasc.ie/publications/2018/grass10-weekly-update-june-12th.php

patsy_mccabe

I think all these weather patterns have to do with the meandering of the jet stream. It's meandering more now than it ever did. When we are below it, the weather is influenced from the south. During the very cold spell earlier in the year, we were above it.
Worrying going forward as this may be the way things will be from now on.

uck51js9zml2yt

You farmers are never happy... are you?

On a serious note, I can see the problems.
At least the ground is drying out after the floods last winter.

Reggie.

Renee Tasteless Thinner wrote: »

You farmers are never happy... are you?

On a serious note, I can see the problems.
At least the ground is drying out after the floods last winter.

Drying out abit too much for some

charolais0153

Reggie. wrote: »

Drying out abit too much for some

Only doing it good. Some aeration was needed

Birdnuts

Theres a huge variation across the country - on my place in North Mayo I could probably get away with not seeing rain till the far side of Christmas!!. However back home in Kildare its clear that the dry spell is starting to bite with very low stream flows and near zero grass growth on slopes, shaded areas etc. with more and more dead grass in evidence.

ganmo

Grass supply is ok...water supply might be critical fairly soon

Mooooo

Reggie. wrote: »

Seen better legs hanging out a nest

Frightening the good Clare folk

FeelTheBern

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Teagasc current advice on managing grass.

https://www.teagasc.ie/publications/2018/grass10-weekly-update-june-12th.php

They didn't seem to be aware of the drought yet when this issued.

Reggie.

charolais0153 wrote: »

Only doing it good. Some aeration was needed

What about the poor lafs whose wells have dried out. No aeration needed there

Blaas4life

About 3 weeks grass ahead of em....drains that I normally water outta still plenty water flowing anyway so far.....on flip side roughly 40% farm burnt to a crisp and practically no regrowth from silage yet

.

Prob end up grazing bogs with main bunch of ewes and lambs by end of the month

Keepgrowing

charolais0153 wrote: »

Only doing it good. Some aeration was needed

Very good point

CHOPS01

Can grass ungrow !?
Cutting tomorrow for silage bales and after walking it this evening i would swear there is less cover than there was 10 days ago. By right i should go graze half what is to be cut but am going to take my chanes.

Timmaay

Feeding 8kg silage, 5kg nuts here, nowhere near enough silage in the pits for the winter, yields well back, and it's gonna take a serious serious amount of rain to get us outa this mess.

charolais0153

Reggie. wrote: »

What about the poor lafs whose wells have dried out. No aeration needed there

It wasnt wanted but you cant do nothing about it. Have to play the hand your dealt.

Water taken for granted in this country anyways.

charolais0153

CHOPS01 wrote: »

Can grass ungrow !?
Cutting tomorrow for silage bales and after walking it this evening i would swear there is less cover than there was 10 days ago. By right i should go graze half what is to be cut but am going to take my chanes.

Its higher dry matter. It has wilted from lack of moisture

mengele

How many gallons if water to the acre would u need to see a difference?

Brown Podzol

mengele wrote: »

How many gallons if water to the acre would u need to see a difference?

1 inch of water is 22,000 gla on an acre. Some areas have a soil moisture deficit of 3 inches.

Markcheese

Do modern grass mixs and even single varieties make a difference?

Keepgrowing

Brown Podzol wrote: »

1 inch of water is 22,000 gla on an acre. Some areas have a soil moisture deficit of 3 inches.

Evaporation not counted there. It would take a massive source of water and a lot of energy to properly irrigate the average size farm. Veg guys around irrigating since Monday but that’s specific fields as opposed to full farm

Keepgrowing

To answer your question OP

All milkers now on buffer. We’ve 3 groups 2 are getting wraps and one getting zgrazef grass. Zgraze should last another week then it’s silage.

The winter milkers are on some absolute gravel, it’s stopped growing and looks like it’s sprayed with roundup. These are confined to a paddock beside the yard and are eating 9 bales per day. Won’t be starting calving till Oct so drying off isn’t an option for another month. We are drying the lowest performing cows on Monday.

Two spring groups have grass but growth slowed to such an extent that they’ll be out of grass in ten days. These are on buffer at milking time only. Will be brought in 1 hour early for grub to fill them.

This isn’t an unusual situation for us, in fact last year was the first I can remember when we didn’t open bales to buffer milkers. All silage being fed was surplus bales made in May off milking block. I sincerely hope it’s confined to this and we don’t have to eat into our winter stocks.

We cut some 2nd cut this week but left 10% uncut for the incalf heifers just to slow them down. The weaned calves are all on good after grass on fields that were cut 3 weeks ago.

We’ve 40 acres of reseeds down 29/5 and that’s struggling, we’ll just have to wait and see how it copes.

This weather is costing us money but it’s something we plan for, that said it’s come 20 days earlier than usual and I’ve never seen some of our ground as crisp. There’s one thing sure and certain it will rain at some stage.

I’m off to the west of Ireland on holidays in 10 days and I’m certain it’ll bull rain that week

A general comment on this area is that winter crops are thriving but there’s not a lot of them due to wey back end. Spring crops of barley are a write off all headed out after about 40 days resulting in a very short stem. Straw will not be available outside of tillage areas this year. Every bit of straw is booked. I tried my msn to see could I add 100 bales to the order and he said it just won’t be there and he may need to reduce all his customers allowance.

Fodder and straw availability in this area this winter will make last spring look like a doddle, this spring will be the real crisis for straw in particular.

The only thing about a drought on grass farms in this area is that when it rains there’s a savage recovery and usually there’s ample silage made.

Keepgrowing

Brown Podzol wrote: »

1 inch of water is 22,000 gla on an acre. Some areas have a soil moisture deficit of 3 inches.

Evaporation not counted there. It would take a massive source of water and a lot of energy to properly irrigate the average size farm. Veg guys around irrigating since Monday but that’s specific fields as opposed to full farm

_Brian

Timmaay wrote: »

Feeding 8kg silage, 5kg nuts here, nowhere near enough silage in the pits for the winter, yields well back, and it's gonna take a serious serious amount of rain to get us outa this mess.

In ways we could be a million miles away.
Silage for the winter in and we cut same bales of less ground than last cut.

While the drier fields are slow our heavy ground is growing spades of grass.

I saw spuds being irrigated near nobber Meath during the week and I’ve never in my life seen that done so locally.

Odd thing is our neighbor has a field that hands on near pure rock and it’s not burned, it would always have burned in previous drought years.

We’re definitely just having a nice dry year here at home while it’s obvious lots of ye guys are in full blown drought conditions, strange wee country.

Angus2018

Weeds have exploded across the farm, never seen such a bad year. As a result I've had to do a lot of topping but stopped last week because it's not growing back fast enough.

I've sold a bunch of bullocks already and forced to sell more this weekend.

Silage yields were way down. I'm pushing hard for a second cut but with the lack of rain the slurry and fertiliser aren't being washed in.

The grass knows there is a drought. It's going into seed head as fast as possible so we are ending up with stemmy crap.

I'm a bit worried about the amount of cows that have come in heat. Maybe I'm missing them but my records are way down compared to last year. I've another 5 weeks before taking off the bulls so there is hope yet.

On the bright side we are making hay stress free.

Dakota Dan

Timmaay wrote: »

Feeding 8kg silage, 5kg nuts here, nowhere near enough silage in the pits for the winter, yields well back, and it's gonna take a serious serious amount of rain to get us outa this mess.

How much does it hit yields and protein?