Up to Sunday night, there was no rainfall in any part of the country for the previous seven days, according to the Met Éireann agricultural data report.

This is highly unusual because, more often than not, some part of the country would have received even 0.1mm of rain over the course of a week.

When one considers that it's early May and not early July, it makes it all the more unusual.

Another interesting fact from the Met Éireann report is that air temperatures have been at or below normal while soil temperatures are three to almost six degrees higher than normal.

Soil moisture deficits are increasing but, at this stage, I don’t think they are restricting growth rates.

That will probably change over the coming week or 10 days as no major rain event is forecast in the drier parts of the country.

Surplus

My advice to farmers is not to plan for a drought situation and instead take each week as it comes.

For now, growth rates remain good over most of the country and I would expect that most farms are continuing to develop surplus grass.

This surplus should be removed quickly to avoid very high pre-grazing yields and the resultant reduction in grass quality.

While many farmers have been scarred in recent years by bad experiences of summer grass shortages, we have to remember that the chances are, it's going to rain at some stage soon and when it does, grass growth will remain high.

Poor quality feed

If it doesn’t rain soon and grass growth rates reduce to a level where the herd needs to be supplemented then so be it, but cross that bridge when we come to it.

By preparing for a drought scenario now, we are intentionally pushing poor quality feed in front of cows when they are at peak production.

This will have the effect of penalising cow performance both now and over the next few weeks and months, all for an event that may not occur.

Best policy is to farm for the present conditions, continue to spread fertiliser and keep on top of grass quality by ensuring cows graze out well and go into covers of 1,300 to 1,500kg DM/ha.