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Drought 2020

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  • 06-05-2020 7:41pm
    #1
    Angus2018
    Registered Users Posts: 210 ✭✭


    Suns out, no clouds, cattle are sunbathing not daring to go far from the trough, any pools of water from the endless Autumn/Winter/Spring rain are lone gone, ditches and stream down to a trickle, some dried up completely already, silage and hay crops heading for seed now and getting stemmy. Exact same signs as Summer 2017.

    How is everyone doing? No sign of rain here on the east coast. Thankfully I had a lot of fodder left over this year so I was able to graze one of the silage fields. I had halved it for hay but no choice but to move animals in a few days ago. Fields grazed 3-4 weeks ago have come back but not anything like they should have. Once they graze them I'll be in serious trouble.


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    #2
    ted_182
    Registered Users Posts: 161 ✭✭ted_182


    Angus2018 wrote: »
    Suns out, no clouds, cattle are sunbathing not daring to go far from the trough, any pools of water from the endless Autumn/Winter/Spring rain are lone gone, ditches and stream down to a trickle, some dried up completely already, silage and hay crops heading for seed now and getting stemmy. Exact same signs as Summer 2017.

    How is everyone doing? No sign of rain here on the east coast. Thankfully I had a lot of fodder left over this year so I was able to graze one of the silage fields. I had halved it for hay but no choice but to move animals in a few days ago. Fields grazed 3-4 weeks ago have come back but not anything like they should have. Once they graze them I'll be in serious trouble.

    We must be in a different country down the south west, raining since last wednesday more or less


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    #3
    greenfield21
    Registered Users Posts: 976 ✭✭✭greenfield21


    Cracking years for heavy land, dream farming on our suckler outfarm.


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    #4
    Mooooo
    Registered Users Posts: 8,611 ✭✭✭Mooooo


    Cow's making a mess hear. Plenty moisture it's heat we need down here anyway. 3 cow's calved then as soon as the weather turned chasing the feckers around the field gap with my wellies getting stuck. It's still April right.....


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    #5
    Buford T. Justice XIX
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,633 ✭✭✭✭Buford T. Justice XIX


    Mooooo wrote: »
    Cow's making a mess hear. Plenty moisture it's heat we need down here anyway. 3 cow's calved then as soon as the weather turned chasing the feckers around the field gap with my wellies getting stuck. It's still April right.....

    This is what land is like here. Growth still good but anywhere damaged spreading in March is rock hard. Can't roll the silage ground as it's not going to stir.
    ERrIL3p.jpg


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    #6
    Who2
    Registered Users Posts: 2,046 ✭✭✭Who2


    Ground is rock hard here, growth is exceptionally poor too. It’s going to take a fair spill of rain to soften land around here,


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    #7
    patsy_mccabe
    Registered Users Posts: 10,681 ✭✭✭✭patsy_mccabe


    Ground is like concrete here. Have to drive slowly over fields that were badly poached before. From one extreme to another.

    'The Bishops blessed the Blueshirts in Galway, As they sailed beneath the Swastika to Spain'



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    #8
    Robson99
    Registered Users Posts: 4,189 ✭✭✭Robson99


    Growth slow here as well. That or else the Urea hasn't worked. Weather has been harsh enough though...winf would cut you in two most days for the last 6 weeks...no nature in it.
    Silage fields have not responded that well either....case of quality and small quantity me thinks this year


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    #9
    mengele
    Registered Users Posts: 868 ✭✭✭mengele


    This is gas. Ground is saturated down here in cork by the coast. Had to bring cattle in today as they were all by the ditch making a huge mess and we have a very dry farm.

    While we have moisture growth is just average at best as we aren't getting the temperatures. I think it was only about 11 degrees here all day.


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    #10
    Timmaay
    Registered Users Posts: 11,394 ✭✭✭✭Timmaay


    I'm busy trying to buy in extra 1st cut here because I just don't have the area or bulk in my own stuff. It will hopefully still all turn around, and it often does (exceptionally dry spring followed by a wet summer), that would suit me perfectly, however for us here in the east coast to have enough rain over the summer the rest of the country has to suffer lol. However worst case scenario would be the rain just doesn't come into early June, then we are in serious trouble because mid June onwards we very regularly see low rainfalls, and it often doesn't break until September. In the 2018 drought we got like 50mm across the August Bank Holiday, but largely back into a drought after that and we didn't break fully until October (however luckily following by an exceptionally mild winter).


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    #11
    Tileman
    Registered Users Posts: 1,126 ✭✭✭Tileman


    Very dry here . Very little growth. Sin splitting the rocks all week but gets very cold at night.

    Had a neighbour asking me had I any spare meadows going or know of any. A different neighbour cut silage yesterday and it was very light. Hope it doesn’t rain for another day or two though. Have the digger man in doing a few clean up jobs.


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    #12
    Reggie.
    Registered Users Posts: 24,363 ✭✭✭✭Reggie.


    Tileman wrote: »
    Very dry here . Very little growth. Sin splitting the rocks all week but gets very cold at night.

    Had a neighbour asking me had I any spare meadows going or know of any. A different neighbour cut silage yesterday and it was very light. Hope it doesn’t rain for another day or two though. Have the digger man in doing a few clean up jobs.
    Looking at the possible 1st cuts around here and I'd say they will be very light


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    #13
    _Brian
    Registered Users Posts: 18,474 ✭✭✭✭_Brian


    Ground as dry as early 2018 here.
    Wee frosts at night and super dry so grass growth has all but stalled.

    We had light rain overnight for about an hour so that should help with more forecast for the afternoon.


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    #14
    K.G.
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 3,034 Mod ✭✭✭✭K.G.


    Third day slashing here in west cork.drought,am i on new New Zealand forum or something by mistake .


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    #15
    whelan2
    Registered Users Posts: 29,078 ✭✭✭✭whelan2


    Bit of rain overnight. Will keep things moving.


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    #16
    Gillespy
    Registered Users Posts: 2,215 ✭✭✭Gillespy


    Not getting the rain the Cork folk are getting but enough. Have my rushy, wetter fields all topped and dung/slurry out on them as early as I can remember. Silage is coming away nicely. Looking to go next week on some of it.

    Was snooping on maps.ie and see the satellite images are from 2018 drought. Not nice viewing.


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    #17
    Lady Haywire
    Registered Users Posts: 5,181 ✭✭✭Lady Haywire


    Everything very dry here, rain last night & it's supposed to be very close/muggy later today so I expect to have a forest of grass by the weekend.
    Probably as close to a perfect spring as we could have. Everything was mulched, lime & fert spread. Slurry out on all bar one meadow which was wet at the time. Drains lifted & one (non LIPP) field which was actually unusable with rushes up to my shoulders had drains lifted & everything cleaned up with the digger mulcher.

    Im expecting a terrible autumn to make up for it :pac:


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    #18
    jaymla627
    Registered Users Posts: 6,457 ✭✭✭jaymla627


    Tileman wrote: »
    Very dry here . Very little growth. Sin splitting the rocks all week but gets very cold at night.

    Had a neighbour asking me had I any spare meadows going or know of any. A different neighbour cut silage yesterday and it was very light. Hope it doesn’t rain for another day or two though. Have the digger man in doing a few clean up jobs.

    Rain isn't going to solve the problem, nights been cold and the East wind are really hampering growth here, tillage lad beside us has 40 odd areas of early sown failed spring wheat, with his winter sown stuff doing very poorly as well, year is a write off for him already


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    #19
    GrasstoMilk
    Registered Users Posts: 3,822 ✭✭✭GrasstoMilk


    Gillespy wrote: »
    Not getting the rain the Cork folk are getting but enough. Have my rushy, wetter fields all topped and dung/slurry out on them as early as I can remember. Silage is coming away nicely. Looking to go next week on some of it.

    Was snooping on maps.ie and see the satellite images are from 2018 drought. Not nice viewing.

    I dont know if it's quite like 2018 yet.
    From my recollection if was a dog wet spring up till april and then it stopped raining for april may and June. Not as bad as that here yet


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    #20
    mf240
    Registered Users Posts: 4,843 ✭✭✭mf240


    Ah lads.


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    #21
    cosatron
    Registered Users Posts: 2,004 ✭✭✭cosatron


    mf240 wrote: »
    Ah lads.

    ha. I do be giving out to the boss man about how negative his generation is, but obviously its just a farming thing.


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    #22
    memorystick
    Registered Users Posts: 1,578 ✭✭✭memorystick


    The swallows aren’t laying and some are heading south already. They need water too. I heard what sounded like a dehydrated, feeble cuckoo earlier. All he could shout was cuk. It was a good 15 minutes before he delivered that fabled coo. Things ain’t good.


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    #23
    endainoz
    Registered Users Posts: 4,699 ✭✭✭endainoz


    Happy to say we have a nice few showers here today, and growth levels have been fantastic. Silage ground got slurry in early March and have been flying since. This is the second straight year of no chemical fert and the ground has adapted quite well.


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    #24
    Robson99
    Registered Users Posts: 4,189 ✭✭✭Robson99


    Will probably cut Silage round 25 -27th heavy or light of it.
    Will have to close some for a second cut I'm afraid


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    #25
    Buford T. Justice XIX
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,633 ✭✭✭✭Buford T. Justice XIX


    Did a walk there this morning. Growth on heavy ground is 90-100, lighter ground is tipping along around 56-60. Huge difference in one paddock with both soil types here. The heavy half is ready for grazing and the lighter half is struggling to reach 1000.


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    #26
    Neddyusa
    Registered Users Posts: 1,010 ✭✭✭Neddyusa


    The one "wet day" in the forecast returned a total of 1.5mm here in Roscommon.

    Only 43mm here since Paddys Day (and 30mm of that fell last Thursday)

    Unusually, its been the west and north-west thats been the driest since March.

    Anyone farming on light soils is going to need all those leftover 2019 bales!


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    #27
    Danzy
    Registered Users Posts: 13,246 ✭✭✭✭Danzy


    Growth poor much of the time but ground dampish, cold east wind.

    Lot of rain here last 24 hours.

    Going to shake extra tomorrow just in case.


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    #28
    charolais0153
    Registered Users Posts: 6,225 ✭✭✭charolais0153


    Neddyusa wrote: »
    The one "wet day" in the forecast returned a total of 1.5mm here in Roscommon.

    Only 43mm here since Paddys Day (and 30mm of that fell last Thursday)

    Unusually, its been the west and north-west thats been the driest since March.

    Anyone farming on light soils is going to need all those leftover 2019 bales!

    Say the east is fairly dry too?


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    #29
    farming93
    Registered Users Posts: 367 ✭✭farming93


    charolais0153 wrote: »
    Say the east is fairly dry too?

    Grass growth has stopped here for me in the east on any bare fields. We'd burn every year one way or another. The silage fields are growing as they have some cover to hold moisture.


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    #30
    Neddyusa
    Registered Users Posts: 1,010 ✭✭✭Neddyusa


    charolais0153 wrote: »
    Say the east is fairly dry too?

    True, but most of the east has had more rain than the west over the last two months.
    Been savage dying too with the sunshine, east wind and low humidity.
    Pity there's no hay to be cut!


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    #31
    popa smurf
    Registered Users Posts: 379 ✭✭popa smurf


    Neddyusa wrote: »
    The one "wet day" in the forecast returned a total of 1.5mm here in Roscommon.

    Only 43mm here since Paddys Day (and 30mm of that fell last Thursday)

    Unusually, its been the west and north-west thats been the driest since March.

    Anyone farming on light soils is going to need all those leftover 2019 bales!
    True here in east galway I am off 7 weeks and I promised herself I would do some painting inside the first wet day we get,, we got 1 The Gods have finally answered it's been like the Costa del sol here and the only Corona around here is
    in bottle.


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