Monday Management: dealing with the weather

Widespread heavy rain and high winds has made farming difficult and challenging. The level of challenge is dependent on location and soil type. Farmers on good land aren’t doing any damage, but cows are uneasy and production is dropping.

But farmers on heavy land are really struggling. Many are resigned to housing cows by night or full time. It’s an extreme step, but, on some farms, it’s a necessary step if it means avoiding damage from poaching.

I was near Macroom in north Cork today and heavy land was very wet. The farmer still had his herd out day and night, but was moving them every 12 hours. Another farmer near Newmarket is practicing on/off grazing, but, even at that, some damage was being done.

Some damage can be tolerated now, in the expectation that the weather will be better when the field will be grazed next. But this doesn’t always happen, so damage should always be minimised.

Whatever about doing damage to fields in spring, when daylight hours are increasing and fields have a chance to recover, the opposite is the case now. There’s very little drying at this time of year.

Graze

But before housing is considered, farmers should be doing all they can to keep cows out. This includes grazing drier parts of the farm (even at low covers), grazing lower covers, back-fencing, 12-hour breaks, on/off grazing, grazing fields with good access, etc.

Where there is no choice but to house, feed good-quality bales or pit silage made from surplus grass in May or June. Other farmers should probably consider feeding 1kg or 2kg of meal to cows if they are very unhappy or where grass dry matters are very low.

The short-term forecast is not showing much sign of improvement, but better weather is promised for next week. This will be cold comfort for farmers struggling with weather now, but remember there are many other farmers in similar predicaments. We can only do our best with the weather we are given.