We need rain – but the right kind of rain

That farms across the country need rain is something most can agree on, but it has to be the right kind of rain.

Paddy Donnelly, a veteran IFA man, says: “The ideal type of rain that you’d want now is showery weather, not too much, just showery weather for a number of days.

“If you get a real big heavy spill now, it’ll just hit the top of the ground and it won’t go down, but if it was a number of days’ rain, nice soft rain, it’ll take time to get down into the ground and the grass roots would respond quite quickly.”

Agri-advisor James Carton is of the same mind; he said: “One thing that’s important that guys mightn’t realise is the solution to it is not more fertiliser, because if you put on more fertiliser now, and there’s no rain, the fertiliser will just sit there, or go up in the sky, or worse still, it’ll sit there, and when a big shower of rain comes, it’ll be washed across the top of the ground and into the water – and then we’re back into nitrates problems again.

“The recommendation would be to wait until we’ve had a shower of rain, until the ground gets softened up again, and then go with fertiliser. There is plenty of heat in the ground, so the grass will grow, the grass will leap out of the ground as soon as the rain comes.”

James has found that farmers are thinking about fertiliser because grass growth is well back due to the prolonged dry spell, but he and Paddy agree that this is not the time to spread it.

Asked what the main concerns are for farmers in the midlands, James said “the obvious thing is the yields”.

“The crop yields are down, the grass growth is down, and that is a concern because obviously if the yields are down there’s less income. If the grass growth is down, the animals aren’t able to eat as much, and obviously the yields are down then as a result.

“Farmers are having to compensate in some cases, particularly with dairy cows, by putting something else into the diet to meet the energy requirements of the animal to grow, to produce milk, to live, so that’s the major issue at the minute.”

A lot depends on stocking rate, said James, as the more animals per acre, the greater the requirement for grass.

He said dairy farmers are making the most money, so they have the flexibility to buy in more meal, but dry stock farmers generally, are not making as much money.

“The other option for a dry stock farmer, like me, is to sell stock to get rid of them. That is something I’d be encouraging guys to do first before they consider buying in meal. Everybody has these stragglers or hangers-on around the place that are going to be sold eventually, and maybe there’s a case of cut your losses on them, sell them now, and that’ll free up some of the grass for the more productive animals.”

Paddy Donnelly has noticed a difference in weather patterns in recent years. He believes the volume of rain in a short time is greater, making it more difficult for the ground to handle it, and when the sun is shining, it’s hotter.

Asked how it’s looking in the coming weeks, he said: “If we had a late winter or a late autumn, the fact that there’s so much heat in the ground now, and you didn’t get too much hardship, if you had soft rain or nice rain, you would get a good response from the grass and you could graze well in to, possibly October.

“It all depends on the weather, we’re just so dependent on the weather – but it is serious at the moment now for a lot of us.”

James concluded with a reminder to farmers to look after their health, especially when working outside in the sun. “Everybody should be wearing a hat, putting on sun cream. Everybody should be drinking water, not tea, not cider,” he said.