While the rainfall has been sporadic so far, more rain is set to return over the course of the weekend, with the highest levels seen in the west and north west, while the south east, which arguably needs it most, will see the lowest levels. It’s a case of every little helps at the minute, and there is always the hope that drizzle would turn in to heavier showers to wet the parched soil.

Grass growth stood remarkably well against a relatively testing time with the lack of rainfall. Soil temperatures are about 6 degrees Celsius, so this combined with rainfall should see grass growth kick forward where it has dipped, or maintain itself where high levels of growth are still being witnessed.

Many farmers would have stopped spreading fertiliser for the most part over the last two weeks, and would be anxious to get going with some again. However, caution would have to be exercised in this regard as some of the rain that is falling is thundery in nature, and combined with the rock-hard nature of ground at the minute, fertiliser could easily be washed off paddocks. Try and ensure that no significant rainfall is forecast for at least 48 hours post application, with the same rule applying for slurry.

Correcting paddocks

We are now coming up to the natural time for paddocks to start heading out and becoming stemmy, with the recent dry spell stressing plants and causing this to happen already in some cases. Correction will need to be done on these paddocks, with the mower or topper being the correction tools. If growth is good enough and there is excess grass on far, then whipping a stemmy paddock out for silage will make for good quality winter feed. Where there isn’t grass to spare, pre-mowing paddocks will lead to reduced waste and a quicker recovery, but takes the choice out of it for cows who will take in the fibrous, low energy stem.