Drought 2020

Angus2018

Suns out, no clouds, cattle are sunbathing not daring to go far from the trough, any pools of water from the endless Autumn/Winter/Spring rain are lone gone, ditches and stream down to a trickle, some dried up completely already, silage and hay crops heading for seed now and getting stemmy. Exact same signs as Summer 2017.

How is everyone doing? No sign of rain here on the east coast. Thankfully I had a lot of fodder left over this year so I was able to graze one of the silage fields. I had halved it for hay but no choice but to move animals in a few days ago. Fields grazed 3-4 weeks ago have come back but not anything like they should have. Once they graze them I'll be in serious trouble.

ted_182

Angus2018 wrote: »

Suns out, no clouds, cattle are sunbathing not daring to go far from the trough, any pools of water from the endless Autumn/Winter/Spring rain are lone gone, ditches and stream down to a trickle, some dried up completely already, silage and hay crops heading for seed now and getting stemmy. Exact same signs as Summer 2017.

How is everyone doing? No sign of rain here on the east coast. Thankfully I had a lot of fodder left over this year so I was able to graze one of the silage fields. I had halved it for hay but no choice but to move animals in a few days ago. Fields grazed 3-4 weeks ago have come back but not anything like they should have. Once they graze them I'll be in serious trouble.

We must be in a different country down the south west, raining since last wednesday more or less

greenfield21

Cracking years for heavy land, dream farming on our suckler outfarm.

Mooooo

Cow's making a mess hear. Plenty moisture it's heat we need down here anyway. 3 cow's calved then as soon as the weather turned chasing the feckers around the field gap with my wellies getting stuck. It's still April right.....

Buford T. Justice XIX

Mooooo wrote: »

Cow's making a mess hear. Plenty moisture it's heat we need down here anyway. 3 cow's calved then as soon as the weather turned chasing the feckers around the field gap with my wellies getting stuck. It's still April right.....

This is what land is like here. Growth still good but anywhere damaged spreading in March is rock hard. Can't roll the silage ground as it's not going to stir.

Who2

Ground is rock hard here, growth is exceptionally poor too. It’s going to take a fair spill of rain to soften land around here,

patsy_mccabe

Ground is like concrete here. Have to drive slowly over fields that were badly poached before. From one extreme to another.

Robson99

Growth slow here as well. That or else the Urea hasn't worked. Weather has been harsh enough though...winf would cut you in two most days for the last 6 weeks...no nature in it.
Silage fields have not responded that well either....case of quality and small quantity me thinks this year

mengele

This is gas. Ground is saturated down here in cork by the coast. Had to bring cattle in today as they were all by the ditch making a huge mess and we have a very dry farm.

While we have moisture growth is just average at best as we aren't getting the temperatures. I think it was only about 11 degrees here all day.

Timmaay

I'm busy trying to buy in extra 1st cut here because I just don't have the area or bulk in my own stuff. It will hopefully still all turn around, and it often does (exceptionally dry spring followed by a wet summer), that would suit me perfectly, however for us here in the east coast to have enough rain over the summer the rest of the country has to suffer lol. However worst case scenario would be the rain just doesn't come into early June, then we are in serious trouble because mid June onwards we very regularly see low rainfalls, and it often doesn't break until September. In the 2018 drought we got like 50mm across the August Bank Holiday, but largely back into a drought after that and we didn't break fully until October (however luckily following by an exceptionally mild winter).

Tileman

Very dry here . Very little growth. Sin splitting the rocks all week but gets very cold at night.

Had a neighbour asking me had I any spare meadows going or know of any. A different neighbour cut silage yesterday and it was very light. Hope it doesn’t rain for another day or two though. Have the digger man in doing a few clean up jobs.

Reggie.

Tileman wrote: »

Very dry here . Very little growth. Sin splitting the rocks all week but gets very cold at night.

Had a neighbour asking me had I any spare meadows going or know of any. A different neighbour cut silage yesterday and it was very light. Hope it doesn’t rain for another day or two though. Have the digger man in doing a few clean up jobs.

Looking at the possible 1st cuts around here and I'd say they will be very light

_Brian

Ground as dry as early 2018 here.
Wee frosts at night and super dry so grass growth has all but stalled.

We had light rain overnight for about an hour so that should help with more forecast for the afternoon.

K.G.

Third day slashing here in west cork.drought,am i on new New Zealand forum or something by mistake .

whelan2

Bit of rain overnight. Will keep things moving.

Gillespy

Not getting the rain the Cork folk are getting but enough. Have my rushy, wetter fields all topped and dung/slurry out on them as early as I can remember. Silage is coming away nicely. Looking to go next week on some of it.

Was snooping on maps.ie and see the satellite images are from 2018 drought. Not nice viewing.

Lady Haywire

Everything very dry here, rain last night & it's supposed to be very close/muggy later today so I expect to have a forest of grass by the weekend.
Probably as close to a perfect spring as we could have. Everything was mulched, lime & fert spread. Slurry out on all bar one meadow which was wet at the time. Drains lifted & one (non LIPP) field which was actually unusable with rushes up to my shoulders had drains lifted & everything cleaned up with the digger mulcher.

Im expecting a terrible autumn to make up for it :pac:

jaymla627

Tileman wrote: »

Very dry here . Very little growth. Sin splitting the rocks all week but gets very cold at night.

Had a neighbour asking me had I any spare meadows going or know of any. A different neighbour cut silage yesterday and it was very light. Hope it doesn’t rain for another day or two though. Have the digger man in doing a few clean up jobs.

Rain isn't going to solve the problem, nights been cold and the East wind are really hampering growth here, tillage lad beside us has 40 odd areas of early sown failed spring wheat, with his winter sown stuff doing very poorly as well, year is a write off for him already

GrasstoMilk

Gillespy wrote: »

Not getting the rain the Cork folk are getting but enough. Have my rushy, wetter fields all topped and dung/slurry out on them as early as I can remember. Silage is coming away nicely. Looking to go next week on some of it.

Was snooping on maps.ie and see the satellite images are from 2018 drought. Not nice viewing.

I dont know if it's quite like 2018 yet.
From my recollection if was a dog wet spring up till april and then it stopped raining for april may and June. Not as bad as that here yet

mf240

Ah lads.

cosatron

mf240 wrote: »

Ah lads.

ha. I do be giving out to the boss man about how negative his generation is, but obviously its just a farming thing.

memorystick

The swallows aren’t laying and some are heading south already. They need water too. I heard what sounded like a dehydrated, feeble cuckoo earlier. All he could shout was cuk. It was a good 15 minutes before he delivered that fabled coo. Things ain’t good.

endainoz

Happy to say we have a nice few showers here today, and growth levels have been fantastic. Silage ground got slurry in early March and have been flying since. This is the second straight year of no chemical fert and the ground has adapted quite well.

Robson99

Will probably cut Silage round 25 -27th heavy or light of it.
Will have to close some for a second cut I'm afraid

Buford T. Justice XIX

Did a walk there this morning. Growth on heavy ground is 90-100, lighter ground is tipping along around 56-60. Huge difference in one paddock with both soil types here. The heavy half is ready for grazing and the lighter half is struggling to reach 1000.

Neddyusa

The one "wet day" in the forecast returned a total of 1.5mm here in Roscommon.

Only 43mm here since Paddys Day (and 30mm of that fell last Thursday)

Unusually, its been the west and north-west thats been the driest since March.

Anyone farming on light soils is going to need all those leftover 2019 bales!

Danzy

Growth poor much of the time but ground dampish, cold east wind.

Lot of rain here last 24 hours.

Going to shake extra tomorrow just in case.

charolais0153

Neddyusa wrote: »

The one "wet day" in the forecast returned a total of 1.5mm here in Roscommon.

Only 43mm here since Paddys Day (and 30mm of that fell last Thursday)

Unusually, its been the west and north-west thats been the driest since March.

Anyone farming on light soils is going to need all those leftover 2019 bales!

Say the east is fairly dry too?

farming93

charolais0153 wrote: »

Say the east is fairly dry too?

Grass growth has stopped here for me in the east on any bare fields. We'd burn every year one way or another. The silage fields are growing as they have some cover to hold moisture.

Neddyusa

charolais0153 wrote: »

Say the east is fairly dry too?

True, but most of the east has had more rain than the west over the last two months.
Been savage dying too with the sunshine, east wind and low humidity.
Pity there's no hay to be cut!

popa smurf

Neddyusa wrote: »

The one "wet day" in the forecast returned a total of 1.5mm here in Roscommon.

Only 43mm here since Paddys Day (and 30mm of that fell last Thursday)

Unusually, its been the west and north-west thats been the driest since March.

Anyone farming on light soils is going to need all those leftover 2019 bales!

True here in east galway I am off 7 weeks and I promised herself I would do some painting inside the first wet day we get,, we got 1 The Gods have finally answered it's been like the Costa del sol here and the only Corona around here is
in bottle.

Who2

Neddyusa wrote: »

True, but most of the east has had more rain than the west over the last two months.
Been savage dying too with the sunshine, east wind and low humidity.
Pity there's no hay to be cut!

I’m in the east, I haven’t seen much.

charolais0153

Neddyusa wrote: »

True, but most of the east has had more rain than the west over the last two months.
Been savage dying too with the sunshine, east wind and low humidity.
Pity there's no hay to be cut!

Would consider us to have dry land but grass growing nicely the whole time,

Neddyusa

charolais0153 wrote: »

Would consider us to have dry land but grass growing nicely the whole time,

Mayo? Ye might have gotten more than us in April. Growth rates on grazed ground here struggling to get to 20kg /ha

MickeyShtyles

No significant rain here on the Meath/Dublin border in the last seven weeks.

whelan2

MickeyShtyles wrote: »

No significant rain here on the Meath/Dublin border in the last seven weeks.

The weather gas been really good more or less since the void restrictions started. Couldn't imagine what it would be like if it was raining. At least people can go outside

Mortelaro

MickeyShtyles wrote: »

No significant rain here on the Meath/Dublin border in the last seven weeks.

Here in south east Wicklow,I've recorded about 50mm in the last 5 weeks
Lots of Sun too
Great growth as a result
3mm of that recorded in last 7 days
Ground is rock hard but theres been plenty moisture so far to fuel that growth here

_Brian

whelan2 wrote: »

The weather gas been really good more or less since the void restrictions started. Couldn't imagine what it would be like if it was raining. At least people can go outside

Spot on there Whelan.

If this had happened in the dark depths of winter it would have been a very different time for us all.

memorystick

_Brian wrote: »

Spot on there Whelan.

If this had happened in the dark depths of winter it would have been a very different time for us all.

It wouldn’t have mattered. There’s a baby boom on the way.

BENDYBINN

memorystick wrote: »

It wouldn’t have mattered. There’s a baby boom on the way.

Or a divorce pandemic........

_Brian

memorystick wrote: »

It wouldn’t have mattered. There’s a baby boom on the way.

I think it would have mattered allot.
At least with the sun and good weather people could get out and do stuff. The kids spent huge amounts of time outside being active.

If this had been Jam & Feb there would have been far bigger depression issues.

Biscuitus

Mad how some lads are in a drought and others are rained under. Could you guys send a bit of rain east.

endainoz

There were a few showers the last few days in the west but nothing crazy, just enough to keep things ticking over. Ground is still quite hard all the same.

It brings up the argument for more diverse awards that are much more resistant to drought like conditions. The mono cultures tend to struggle as the summer of 2018 showed.

tanko

Sure it'll probably rain the whole month of June to make up for this "drought".

Cavanjack

No rain here worth talking about since paddies day. No regrowth what’s so ever. Far from overstocked but will be feeding bales in a week I’d say.

tanko

Cavanjack wrote: »

No rain here worth talking about since paddies day. No regrowth what’s so ever. Far from overstocked but will be feeding bales in a week I’d say.

Did you not get the rain yesterday evening or the heavy rain about a week or so ago?

Timmaay

endainoz wrote: »

It brings up the argument for more diverse awards that are much more resistant to drought like conditions. The mono cultures tend to struggle as the summer of 2018 showed.

I considered that here before (Esp as we experience droughts about 1 in 3 summers here), however the conclusion I came to was that that I'd lose far more during the normal wet periods than I'd gain in them few droughts. If we are in for alot more regular summer 2018, then yep it might be worth consideration, however in the likes of the north island in NZ where they experience droughts regularly they have still stuck with the monocultures, and instead usually go down the irrigation road.

Mooooo

Tbh 2018 was the only drought period we've ever had to deal with and at that it wasn't a proper drought in that growth rates slowed but didn't stop. Dealing with wet weather is a much bigger issue which is why I have my reservations with mss and clover and being forced to use it

mf240

Drought is so bad here a lad tried to drownd himself but there wasn't enough water.



He's gone off to be dried out.......

Buford T. Justice XIX

Met Eireann data on rainfall.

_Brian

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

Met Eireann data on rainfall.

Do you have a link for that.
I was looking one day and just gave up.