Battle against the elements proved hazardous and costly
The situation was particularly acute in wet land areas, even under conditions where land has been expertly drained and the best management practices were put into use to deal with the problem which led to farming being literally washed out during May, June, July and August.
On the Teagasc farm at Kilmaley, Co Clare, a reserve of silage and bought in meal feeding saved the day for the livestock, but the impact has hit production costs on the farm and fertility has also taken a knock in the dairy herd.
James O’Loughlin, Teagasc, Kilmaley, says that in heavy land areas farmland has not dried out at all in 2002 and for the months of May, June, July and August cows on the farm spent more than one-third of the period off the land In a summary of the outcome for the year in Teagasc Today's Farm, he says “the weather broke on May 12 with ever increasing falls of rain. Ground conditions deteriorated resulting in cows being housed for the last 10 days of May, fed on last year's silage and concentrate”.
“This was the start of a trend which saw cows housed for 16 days in June, 11 days in July and 11 days in August. From our ground score measurements it is clear that land did not dry out properly this year resulting in considerable poaching damage,” he says.
He has analysed the result of the impact of the wet weather as causing a complete depletion of silage reserves on the farm, an increase in meal feeding of 300kgs per cow (almost 6cwt) during the period May-August over the same period in 2001, during which there was a deterioration in grass quality and no opportunity for topping of pasture.
While the remedial action taken resulted in holding milk yield close to last year, it appears that herd fertility has been hit by a slight decrease in conception rates to first service.
Despite the use of special low ground pressure machinery on the farm, silage cutting was delayed until early June and was interrupted by further heavy rainfall which held up the balance until the latter half of the month.
The experience at Kilmaley confirms that even under the most expert conditions farming was a hazardous and costly operation in the battle against the elements of weather in 2002.
