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Pat O'Donoghue runs a dairy farm just outside the town of Ennistymon in Co Clare. The fodder situation in the area is dire, after heavy rainfall during the summers months prevented farmers from making enough winter fodder.
"It’s varying from farm to farm, but compared to other years where an individual might be tight on silage, this year everyone is tight on silage," O'Donoghue said.
"In the past if you were tight you’d get silage locally enough from neighbours but everybody knows they’re a bit short at the moment.
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"I carry about 50 cows and I carry the replacement heifers as well and this year the second cut of silage, it just wasn’t possible. I made a few attempts to get it and kept going hoping a window would open up but either we didn’t even get to cut it or got it cut and had to just leave it there afterwards. It just was not possible to pick it up.
Here it was just one flood after another.
"Talking to people that I’d know even in the midlands, which isn’t very far as the crow flies, but they would’ve been enjoying good enough days whereas here it was just one flood after another.
"It has put a big cost on them and a big mental strain on them as well because the fodder just doesn’t seem to be there. It definitely varies from farmyard to farmyard but there is definitely big financial pressure there on a lot of farms."
Pat O'Donoghue's sons Cathal and Pádraig with a newborn calf.
O'Donoghue praised the work of the IFA, which has organised an initiative to pair counties with a fodder surplus with those who are experiencing a fodder shortage.
"Already one load just came in there Christmas week here into Ennistymon and it came from Tipperary and farmers had actually donated it for free.
"All the farmers had to pay for was for the transport of it in, which in a year where fodder is so scarce means an awful lot of kudos has to go to those farmers.
"Some farmers would see an opportunity to make a killing, and you would see even in the area signs up outside farmyards where there is a lot of silage and asking for up to €50 a bale."
An awful lot now is riding on when spring comes
O'Donoghue believes that the outcome of the fodder situation will depend on the spring and what drying conditions will be like in the near future.
He said: "The more [fodder] that’s brought in now, the better chance we have of lessening a calamity which could turn up if the winter is delayed.
"An awful lot now is riding on when spring comes and can ground dry out and how much fine weather would be needed to dry out ground, because at present ground is in savage condition, and listening to very elderly farmers that have been on the land their whole life they have never seen ground conditions as bad as they are at present."
There have been calls from farm organisations for the Department of Agriculture to step in and introduce a fodder scheme, and O'Donoghue hopes the Government will introduce a scheme that helps with transport costs.
"Since fodder is being offered and there seems to be enough in certain parts of the country I think that what would be most efficient in helping farmers on the ground would be help to bring down the transport costs," O'Donoghue concluded.
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