Friday

Friday will be another cool day, with sunny spells and showers. Some showers will be heavy, with hail and a chance of thunder.

Highest afternoon temperatures will be 5°C to 8°C in moderate, occasionally fresh and gusty westerly winds.

Friday night will see showers becoming confined to coastal parts of the west and north for a time early on in the night, but the showers will start to spread elsewhere again later on.

Some falls of sleet or snow are possible over higher ground.

It will be cold, with some frost and ice possible, with overnight temperatures falling between to -1°C and 3°C.

Saturday

Saturday will bring a lot of dry weather overall, with some sunshine.

Cloud will increase from the southwest later, along with scattered showers.

Afternoon temperatures will be 7°C to 10°C in light to moderate northwest winds.

Overnight, outbreaks of rain and drizzle will push up from the southwest.

Lowest overnight temperatures will be 1°C to 3°C in the north and northeast, 4°C to 7°C elsewhere in fresh southeasterly winds.

Sunday

Met Éireann has forecast rain and drizzle on Sunday in the south of the country in the morning, with just scattered showers affecting western, northern and eastern coastal counties.

Top temperatures will be 6°C to 8°C in light to moderate northerly winds.

Overnight, a northerly airflow will develop, bringing clear spells and isolated showers. Temperatures will be 0°C to 3°C, allowing a touch of frost to develop.

Management notes

Beef

Adam Woods has advice for farmers around the importance of weighing stock, dealing with the current wet weather and calving dirty cattle.

Dairy

In the dairy management notes, Aidan Brennan discusses the current state of play for grazing, the delay in getting blue cards back where farmers are participating in the genotyping programme and milk fever.

Sheep

Darren Carty talks about drafting ewe hoggets, the upcoming deadline for the Sheep Improvement Scheme and advice around checking your insurance policy to cover dog attacks.

Tillage

This week, Siobhan Walsh looks at the weather, the three-crop rule, fertiliser spreading, plant counts, oilseed rape, light leaf spot and payments.