Farmers are still dealing with the results of storm Éowyn, with many buildings and trees damaged, as well as many farms and homes still being without power and water. This is a real struggle, especially with calving kicking in to gear for many.

A small positive is that opening covers for farmers who have recorded them are looking decent so far. Recorded average covers sit at 775kg DM/ha and 623kg DM/ha for dairy and beef farms respectively, with 4kg DM/ha of growth predicted.

It’s worth noting that covers haven’t risen particularly well this winter. This is partly due to an extended grazing in to November and even December for some farms, while frost and snowfall likely knocked back covers a little as well.

Soil temperatures

Soil temperatures are still struggling, thought to be fair it is still quite early. Predicted soil temperatures for this week are 4-5 degrees Celsius in the main. At this temperature, spreading of any chemical N is a complete no-no, while the spreading of slurry should be limited to what will give you breathing room in the tanks until ground warms up a little.

There is quite a bit of rainfall forecast for the week as well. I know some eager farmers have turned out cows for a few hours during the day this past week. This may or may not be a possibility for the coming week. The only way to truly know this is going out and walking the ground yourself; the cow will walk it for you but she won’t come in and tell you it’s too wet until some hours later.