The rain arrived this week and was welcomed by a large portion of farmers, as improvements in grass growth are needed by many.
After the prolonged dry weather this summer many farms had significant soil moisture deficits, which have yet to return to what would be considered normal at this time of year.
However, looking are current grass growth rates, farmers may have to exercise patience for a little while longer.
Current grass growth rates, based on figures from PastureBase Ireland, are 32kg dry matter (DM)/ha in Leinster; 31kg DM/ha in Munster; 48kg DM/ha in Connacht; and 51kg DM/ha in Ulster.
The outlook is that there will be little change across the country for the coming days.
However, we should start to see improvements in growth rates in the near future.
The predicated growth rates are 39kg DM/ha for Leinster; 39kg DM/ha for Munster; 49kg DM/ha for Connacht; and 51kg DM/ha for Ulster.
Autumn covers
The building of autumn covers would have usually started on farms by now, but due to the reduced growth rates this has not happened on many farms.
The target for the end of September is to have an average farm cover of 1,000kg DM/ha and around 750kg of DM/ha for early September.
But on many farms these targets will not be achievable, which will likely mean that this year, covers will not be as heavy as previous years when closed.
With that said, it is important not to graze cows for too long. Some farmers may be tempted to graze cows for longer but this will stunt growth further, resulting in poor covers next spring.
Farmers should remove any surplus cows from the herd now, to help with the building of covers.
Reducing the stocking rate on the milking platform and extending the rotation length is how farmers will have to build covers.
In many cases, farmers will have to accept that average farm-cover targets won’t be reached and should instead aim for an average farm cover of 750kg to 800kg DM/ha by the end of September.
This will likely mean that farms will still need to continue feeding silage over the coming weeks.