I got an opportunity to speak at a conference on water policy in Brussels last Wednesday. One of the main worries around a group of supply companies was water stress. It is a reality for 18% of the European population that there is a problem keeping the taps running. I explained that supply of the raw material was not something Irish farmers worried about.

I arrived home on Friday to a farm experiencing the Irish form of water stress. Heavy rain during the week followed by mist and fog is making grazing difficult. Compounding the fact is that the remaining paddocks in the first round all have over 2,000kg/dm/ha covers. This was last grazed in early November and got 35 units urea/acre in late January. This was followed by 4,000 gallons of watery slurry through a trailing shoe attachment on an umbilical spreading system. The slurry was an “experiment” to see if it would work in a cover of 1,000kg. It did only for the fact that I was forced to delay grazing.

The next problem is that the start of the second rotation has a cover of 800kg, despite the February 1st turnout. That is a growth rate of only 13kg/day. I will manage to stretch the first round to 4 April.

Cows are out full time and being buffer fed with silage, 10kg beet and 6kg coarse mix (soya hulls, maize meal and rolled barley). I mix it in a feeder with some straw and minerals/calmag. I have head-feed space for the whole herd using a trough in the collecting yard as well as the feed passage. This way they can eat nearly as much in an hour before evening milking as though they were in by night.

The calvings have finished bar two and there is lots of bulling activity. The cows are playing their part regarding spring, I just wish the weather would check the calendar.