Oh dear I was wrong, according to one of my classmates in Tipperary. The accusation came through the bush telegraph. I said the drought was over. But in Cork and Tipperary it was not. I guess it was wishful thinking on my part. Once the rain started I thought it would continue, in true Irish fashion. But this is a strange year and nothing is normal. We had some rain and then little spurts of drizzle every other day. The ground is still very hard. The moisture deficit continues, consequentially grass growth is slow. It means that the increased feeding of meal to the cows is set to remain well into September.

Feeding costs continue to be of major concern, further impacting the year-end profit. Palm kernel has become available again and we got a load this week to stretch the grass. We have greened up quite a bit and grass growth is at 44kg DM/ac. Full demand is 54kg, so we are still well behind.

On top of that we need to be building grass covers for the autumn, as we always graze well into November. While measurement is key on our farm, I make a quick judgement by the growth of the lawn. It has been cut only once in August.

The man in Tipperary is right. The drought there continues, with fields looking considerably less green than here in Cork.

Across the country, I think farmers thought that the response to moisture might be faster. It was never going to make up for the long weeks of drought.

A water trough sprung a leak last week due to an inquisitive cow licking the bung. The response in grass growth on the wet patch was phenomenal, highlighting the continued moisture deficit. This proves that we are in what Tim calls a green drought. Grass is growing, but not adequately.

Catch crops

On the outside rented farm we managed to get a cushion of 27 bales of silage that we didn’t anticipate. We also got in 30 acres of rape for the feeding of the in-calf heifers and some dry cows. Around 15 acres of this has been done on extra rented stubble ground secured from a neighbouring cereal farmer. Cereal farmers are generally very careful about their ground and like to keep it right. They do not like the marking or poaching from animals’ hooves. Two things have changed this: the introduction of the fodder production incentive scheme and the desire of all farmers to assist in the fodder provision for the winter ahead. It is crucial that the rain continues to fall. Scanning will be done shortly and any girls not in-calf will be sold, lightening the winter feeding load. These girls are costing almost €4/day to feed. The milk is worth 40c/litre, so unless a cull cow is producing in excess of 10 litres, she will be sold.

Colm travels

Meanwhile, Colm has set off on the next leg of his Nuffield travels to Canada and several states of America. Last week, emails were flying while he organised a tight schedule of meetings and visits. He left here in the wee hours to take a bus to Dublin airport and onward flights to Los Angeles.

A tweet during the night informed us that his flight was delayed by six hours in Reykjavik. This in turn would make him late for picking up his rented car and allow him only four hours’ sleep before his schedule began.

Colm is always intolerant of poor performance and I can just imagine him in an angry state, calculating his losses. The most important one is time. In hindsight, I’d be suggesting leaving the first day free for such eventualities. Experience has taught me that, but Colm would consider that unnecessary as he expects people to perform and to deliver on time. Of course he is right. He is gone now for nearly four weeks. I will miss him around the place and the breakfast conversations.

Grass-feeding plan

Before Colm left, Tim opened the discussion on grass management for autumn. “Well, am I feeding the budget or am I feeding the rotation?”

There are two parameters for the feeding of grass, the grass wedge and the feed budget. Deciding which to use is important. They decided that it was time to give up on the grass wedge as that is based on a 30-day rotation and would eat the grass cover on the farm much too fast and would be inside in October.

That’s not desirable so the rotation must be pushed out to 45 or 46 days. All schools are back and leaf drop isn’t too far away.

Congratulations to all the Limerick people on their great win.