Stuttering start to the 2026 grazing season

The country as a whole is wet at the moment, but unusually it’s the farms in the eastern half of the country that are suffering the most.

It’s not often one can see a selection of cows out grazing anywhere west of the Shannon while their comrades in the east are very much still indoors, but this year is proving to be that rarity.

This is the result of record levels of rainfall in the eastern counties.

Rainfall data from Met Eireann weather stations show that rainfall in the months of November, December and January for areas in the east are almost double the long-term average.

In comparison, rainfall in the west and north is tracking much closer to the long-term average, with some stations even recording lower than average rainfall over the same three months.

Opportunities

For farms in waterlogged areas where grazing is simply not an option, focus on building extra cover.

Over half of the farms in Ireland are well behind the target of 1,000kg DM/ha, so now is the chance to build.

If there are any opportunities to graze as weather improves, take them. It’s still important to try and follow the spring rotation planner as best is possible.

For dry farms the target is 25-30% of the farm area grazed by the end of February. On heavier farms this will be closer to 15%. These paddocks will need to have enough of a cover back to start the second rotation.

Target drier ground with lower covers if necessary. Use on/off grazing for three hours and make sure cows are going out to the paddock with an appetite to cause the least damage.

This means restricting silage intake for a number of hours pre-grazing.

Strip wires and back fences are the only way to stop cows tracking over and back across grazed ground and should be used at all times.

Nutrient is very important at this time of year. Studies show nitrogen is effective in soil temperatures as low as five degrees.

While it won’t be as effective as it will in the summer months, it’s necessary to kickstart the growing process and paddock recovery post-grazing. Getting some slurry or chemical nitrogen out now is crucial.

Joseph Dunphy – Easkey, Co Sligo

We’ve 40 cows calved so far out of the 310 that are due altogether. The majority of those calved are heifers and we’re not due to start calving for another few days.

Ground conditions are excellent at the moment on the farm, and we’re sending cows out to grass for a few hours during the day.

They’re in fully at night for now on 74 DMD silage, but as more start calving they’ll be going out after evening milking too for three hours.

We have spread 12% of the milking platform with watery slurry, and we’re planning to spread 18 units of protected urea on the rest of the platform at the start of next week if weather allows.

Stocking Rate (cow/ha) -

Growth Rate (kg/day) -

Average Farm Cover (kg/ha) 1,105

Yield (l/cow) -

Fat% -

Protein% -

Milk Solids (kg/cow) -

Concentrates 2.5

Eoin McCormack – Teagasc Clonakilty, Co Cork

We’ve 76 of the cows calved so far. They’re at grass twice a day for on/off grazing since the end of January.

They’re going out for around two hours and coming back in to a bit of silage. Average farm cover is fairly high at 1,160kg DM/ha so we’ll have plenty of grass but need to keep getting through it.

Ground conditions are still wet as we’ve had a lot of the heavy rain other counties have gotten, so we’re managing grazing very carefully.

No fertiliser or slurry has gone out at this point but the plan is to blanket spread 20 units of nitrogen over the weekend. Slurry will go out to grazed ground when weather allows.

Stocking Rate (cow/ha) -

Growth Rate (kg/day) -

Average Farm Cover (kg/ha) 1,160

Yield (l/cow) -

Fat% -

Protein% -

Milk Solids (kg/cow) -

Concentrates 4

James Hoey – Dunleer, Co Louth

We have 25% of the herd calved so far. We were due to start calving on 6 February so we’re getting through them quickly.

We had normal over winter growth, with 200kg DM/ha grown since closing last November. There’s no grazing being done yet as ground conditions are still too wet and there’s no sign of a let up either in the next week.

Cows are getting maize and grass silage plus 4kg of concentrates. When we do go out, we’ll be targeting lighter covers to get through ground.

Some of the heavier swards are starting to turn yellow and they’ll start to go backwards if not grazed in the first half of March.

Stocking Rate (cow/ha) -

Growth Rate (kg/day) -

Average Farm Cover (kg/ha) 1,189

Yield (l/cow) -

Fat% 5.71

Protein% 3.65

Milk Solids (kg/cow) -

Concentrates 4