John Curtis is a dairy farmer milking 148 cows in Adamstown, Co Wexford. The progressive farmer has had a tough year, from a cold and wet spring, snow storms and now a prolonged drought which has seen growth rates and grass covers collapse.
John Curtis and his son, Conor, from Adamstown, Co Wexford.
It hasn't rained on John's farm since early May and there is no rain in the forecast. Fields that should be bright green and vibrant are now crispy and brown, a scene reflected across the east and south and likely to spread to all areas over the coming weeks. The following pictures give a sense of how John is managing.
The cows are milking well at 2.05kgMS at 25.5l and 4.07% fat and 3.63% protein. The cows are on 6kg of meal and 5kg of soya hulls.
The last grazed field on John's farm. Over two-thirds of the farm is like this.
Pre-grazing yields look good from a distance but are actually very poor when you walk in. This field was badly poached in spring.
Pre-grazing yield looks good from a distance but is actually very poor when you walk through. I estimate the cover at 500kg/ha.
Despite the drought and shortage of grass, cows are very content because they are being well fed.
Cows are now getting very little grass with only eight days of "high covers" ahead of them.
Drought affected dairy farm belonging to John Curtis, Adamstown, Co Wexford.
John is feeding soya hulls along the feed face of the shed. Cows eat them when they are in for milking. He also opened two bales yesterday but they did not eat much of them.
John is buying soya hulls and is also buying palm kernel. The palm kernel is to be delivered on Tuesday.
John plans to fee palm kernel out the field in this trailer and move it from field to field.
John converted this old beet chopper to a feeder for feeding soya hulls. One full bucket is about 700kg of palm kernel.