Meadows for one cut of silage are making as much as €300/ac in parts of south Tipperary where demand from dairy farmers is “massive”, Cashel mart manager and property agent Alison De Vere Hunt told the Irish Farmers Journal.

This price, she said, is being paid freely by dairy farmers who will take whatever they can get as grass growth continues to dwindle.

“What we’re seeing down around this area is a lot of dairy farmers in particular who are feeding first cut silage.

“The grass is so slow to come that basically they have no choice now but to feed the first cut,” De Vere Hunt said.

Meanwhile, Kilkenny-based auctioneer Joe Coogan handled two recent auctions of silage meadows in Co Laois and Co Kilkenny where prices of between €185/ac and €250/ac were paid.

The 29ac lot at Luggacurrel, Stradbally, made €250/ac while a 42ac block nearby made €230/ac and an 8.5ac parcel made €210/ac.

In Tullaroan, Co Kilkenny, a 20ac parcel, described as “well manured”, made €185/ac. In both places, fertiliser had been applied by the landowner.

However for unfertilised ground, a dairy farmer in east Limerick said he paid €150/ac for first cut having fertilised it himself.

“I’d always rather buy the meadow and fertilise it myself because if you’re buying it fertilised there’s probably only 50 units of nitrogen going out on it and you’d want 70 units,” he said.