Cork farmers counting the cost of drought

Low water levels in Cork city’s Lough have caused algae to grow and turn the water green, while a hosepipe ban remains currently in place for the entire country.

But the sector feeling the pain more than most, and proving to be a bellwether for the rest, is Irish agriculture.

Irish farm advisors are already dreading conversations with farmers as grass growth stalls and winter feed stocks come under pressure, warning that this drought is worse than 2018 and that, without substantial rain, relief may arrive too late.

Tim Casey, CEO and founder of Cork Grassland Services, said the persistent poor grass growth is taking a toll on both advisers and farmers.

“Day by day, I’m getting more and more depressed … I nearly dread meeting the farmers now after our measurements. Every week it’s more bad news.”

Many farmers are entering a period when grass reserves should be building, but instead finding themselves with little or no surplus, Mr Casey said difficult decisions now lie ahead.

“It means heavier supplementation, greater reliance on silage and concentrates, and potentially difficult decisions around stocking rate, drying cows off earlier and winter housing.”

Mr Casey said farms are functioning on half the grass they actually need and that he has had to delay measuring for clients to once every two weeks instead of every week due to the low grass growth rates at the moment.

Like the Sahara Desert

“East Cork, it’s like the Sahara Desert. Entire farms are burnt … I’ve never seen farm covers as low,” he said.

Similar drought conditions were experienced in June and July 2018, but the key difference was that significant rainfall arrived during the first weeks of August.

Dairy farmer Brian Duncan, situated in Dungourney in East Cork, has been actively measuring his grass since 2018.

“We started grass measuring in 2018, and we have been continuously growing less grass per year, year on year, since 2018 with better management due to the lower rainfall,” Mr Duncan said. “Grass growth is down to 21kg. Last year it was 60kg. We’re getting used to it now. Since 2018 there has been some sort of a drought every year.”

To reduce the effects of the current drought, Mr Duncan explained he dried off his autumn calvers almost four weeks early and split his spring calving herd in two, completing 12-hour shifts for grazing between both halves.

Mr Duncan said his milking herd is currently receiving 25kg of silage, 2kg of rolled barley and 6kg of nuts in the parlour, but milk production is still slipping.

Winter feed reserves 

With many farmers already utilising winter feed reserves, Mr Casey said his concerns extend beyond this summer and into the spring of 2027.

Discussing how by the end of August some farmers could already have silage they were saving for March and April already fed, he said: “There’s no room for next spring to go poorly.”

Dairy farmer Rachel Kenny farms 103 cows on the family farm in Conna, with her husband Mike.

“We’re just about coping; it’s not great. We haven’t had any rain for about seven weeks, so we are struggling to grow anything over 15kg,” she told The Echo.

Her cows are also back in production, averaging 20 litres, so she is supplementing with silage bales in the field, silage, and zero-grazed grass available to the cows at milking, and feeding 5kg of dairy nuts in the parlour.

“There’s about three hours extra every day feeding. It’s a drain, because this time of the year it’s supposed to be a bit more relaxing. It’s way more taxing and exhausting,” she said.

Mr Casey said: “The biggest problem as of now is that the rain is just too late. I personally think it’s a lot worse than 2018. 2018 was disastrous, but it recovered early enough.”

He stressed that with every week that passes without meaningful grass growth, the problem becomes more difficult and more expensive.

He explained that farmers are not just losing the grass that cows could be eating today, but losing valuable weeks in August when farms would normally be building their autumn grass wedge.

He continued, saying once we get into September, the opportunity to grow grass becomes progressively smaller as the natural grass-growing season begins to slow down.

Mr Casey concluded, saying the important message “is that this isn’t simply a few difficult weeks” for farmers and their livestock.

The grass that isn’t being grown now will need to be supplemented and replaced with purchased or winter feed reserves, and that failure to build grass cover over August could have serious knock-on effects through autumn, winter, and into the early 2027 grazing season.