According to Met Eireann data, soil moisture deficits are running at between 30mm and 60mm across almost all of Munster and Leinster. It is lower in Connacht and Ulster.

Now, some places got heavy rain late last week, but that fell in thunderstorms and was very variable.

To put the soil moisture deficit in context, during the peak of the 2018 drought, soil moisture deficits were running over at 80mm in the worst affected parts.

Soil moisture deficits are usually running at between 30mm and 40mm for the summer months on free-draining land with no real restriction on growth, so while a 50mm deficit will affect growth rates, it’s not that severe yet.

What to do if no rain falls

What happens if it doesn’t rain? This is the main issue for farmers now and judging by the forecast, it looks as though most of Munster and Leinster will avoid most of the rain this week and into next weekend.

Most farms in these regions are now growing less than 50kg per day, which is a good bit less than the herd demand.

As a result, extra supplement is being fed both in the form of additional meal and also silage, with a lot of dairy farmers now feeding some high-quality bales or good-quality pit silage to supplement what grass is available.

In most cases, the grass is still growing, but at a much slower pace than normal and, in these circumstances, it makes sense to want to protect average farm cover and not let it drop too low.

In terms of feeding silage, there are three options here. It can be fed in the shed, in a sacrifice paddock near the parlour or in the field where the cows are grazing.

There are pros and cons to each, but feeding out in the field that they are grazing in is probably best from a nutrient use point of view, as a sacrifice paddock means there are lots of nutrients applied to a very small area.

Feeding in a shed is fine, but it does mean that cows will be lying in cubicles and risk getting hurt or getting mastitis.