Over the course of the past six years, there has been just one good grass growing year, with other years seeing “a significant drop off” in grass growth rates during the grass growing season, a Teagasc advisor has highlighted.
Speaking on the AgriFocus podcast, earlier this week, Teagasc DairyBeef 500 programme advisor, Fergal Maguire highlighted the challenges farmers have been facing with unpredictable grass growth rates during the summer months.
He said: “Since 2018, we had probably one very good growing year – 2021. Other than that, we have always had significant drops off on growth.”
Over the past number of years, farmers in many parts of the country have had to reintroduce bale silage into cattle diets as grass growth rates decline due to soil moisture deficits in the summer months.
This has presented significant challenges for these farmers to ensure they have sufficient fodder heading into the winter months.
The Teagasc advisor said:
“It is challenging in the last couple years just managing grass. We’re going from a big surplus deficit very quickly. Last year was the exact same, we went from a big surplus in May and then we went to a deficit and we came back again in July and August.
“We are seeing a trend towards growth rates being a bit more unpredictable than what we had in 2010 onwards. We had great growing years up until 2017-2018 and then it’s just got a bit hit and miss at the moment.”
The Teagasc advisor acknowledged that there has always been variable years for grass growth rates but added that “the last couple years seem to be very challenging for farmers”.
“More so than even with price, bad weather puts farmers in a worse mood when everything’s going against them.
“You can really take from this time last year until now, farmers haven’t really got a break from the weather, it’s been a constant struggle and is probably having a bit of a toll on farmers with the mood that’s around at the moment.”
According to Teagasc, there has been “a slight improvement in grass availability on Irish farms over the past seven days” however, growth rates “are still poor for this time of the year at 56kg and 50kg DM/Ha respectively on Irish dairy and drystock farms”.