Grass growth may be on the floor, but farmers will have noticed that reseeds preformed better during the dry period than older mature swards.

Farmers, especially those in the south-east, will have seen how reseeded pastures and clover swards have remained greener for longer, were slower to produce stem, and were more palatable to cows.

The drought will offer farmers a chance to identify fields that are most in need of reseeding, as some may consider early autumn reseeding or sowing winter forage reseeds.

Soil moisture deficits will determine how viable a reseed is.

However, with rain maintaining growth in the north and west of the country and farmers in the south eyeing the following week for potential precipitation, farmers will be contemplating reseeding when weather allows.

Following a wet spring, many farmers banked on getting autumn reseeding work done, but are now having to balance reseeding with ensuring there is sufficient winter feed as silage and concentrate usage has dwindled reserves.

Agriland spoke to Agritech Ireland, who said that the country could be split in two, with the north-west and south-east seeing very different approachs based on rain and moisture deficits.

Agritech Ireland have seen the demand for long-root plants such as chicory and plantain seeds reduced as farmers are more focused on establishing clover swards, with mixed species less popular than previous years.

Brassicas

Agriland also spoke to Germinal's Pat Delaney who said that many farmers were increasingly considering growing brassicas in particular redstart kale.

He put the popularity down to farmers who are feeding silage deciding that winter forage was a possible answer to replacing the feed reserves used up.

He added that the window sowing for Maris Kestrel was over now but redstart has to be in by mid-August to maximise returns.

Delaney cautioned farmers that rain has to be reliable.

He explained: "A seed in the ground will be fine, but if it germinates and it gets dry again it will struggle."

Multispecies

On multispecies, Germinal are seeing much fewer orders with popularity well-down, with this primarily due to the Multispecies Sward Scheme not being included in the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS).

Delaney also reported that some farmers were considering fescue grass seeds but he added that palatability was a concern with fescue grass.

Similar to Agritech Ireland, he reported that demand for plantains and chicory wasn't substantial but that red clover was more popular as farmers value its role in silage swards and as a feed.

Agriland also spoke to Nigel Condell of Specialist Nutrition about farmers specifically in the Leinster area, who said that soil moisture deficits had halted virtually all activity.

The main activity was coming from farmers with maize who will have earlier harvests with the dry weather.

Farmers are eyeing westerwolds and forage rape with an eye towards April silage.