After six weeks of cold weather, followed by two weeks of wet weather, it appears that mother nature left the worst of the weather until last.

I say this because the forecast is for the weather to (hopefully) settle down by the middle of this week.

Severe downpours have characterised the weather over the past 10 days and it has taken its toll on ground conditions.

Milk yields

Some herds have had to be housed for periods. In all cases, milk yields have dropped as dry matter intakes have been reduced.

It’s not the type of weather one expects for late May.

However, it can happen and we’ve been here before only for the weather to settle down into June and recover some of the lost ground in terms of milk yield and grass growth, so don’t throw in the towel just yet.

Grazing drier paddocks, grazing in 12-hour breaks, using on-off grazing and feeding some high-quality silage or extra meal to maintain dry matter intakes is the best advice.

Challenges

Hopefully, these management challenges will now be behind us, as the weather is set to improve from Tuesday onwards, although scattered showers are possible.

As well as a respite from the rain, farmers will also be looking for an increase in temperatures, which are currently below normal for the time of year.

An increase in temperatures will lead to an increase in grass growth.

Many farmers are waiting for a dry spell to cut silage and there could well be an opportunity later this week.

Make sure to check nitrate levels in grass before cutting, as I suspect there will be a release of soil nitrogen when soils warm up.