The sun might look great on a postcard, but for farmers across the east and south-east of Ireland, this prolonged dry spell is turning into a financial nightmare. Dairy and tillage producers are counting the cost of weeks without meaningful rainfall, and the numbers are brutal.
One farmer put it plainly: “Do the maths, that is €3,500 a week.” That is not a one-off hit. That is the kind of ongoing weekly loss that can hollow out a farm business fast, eating through reserves that took years to build up.
The dry, hot summer has hammered grass growth across the affected regions. For dairy farmers, that means one thing above everything else: buying in feed to replace what the land is no longer producing. Silage stocks that were meant to carry herds through winter are being burned through now, in summer, just to keep animals fed. That completely flips the economics of the season on its head.
Tillage farmers are dealing with their own set of problems. Crops that needed consistent moisture at key growth stages simply did not get it. Yields are down, and in some cases fields that looked promising earlier in the year have failed to deliver anything close to what farmers were banking on. When your income is tied directly to what comes off the land, a bad few weeks of weather can wipe out your margin for the entire year.
The south-east has historically been one of the drier parts of Ireland, but even by local standards this summer has been exceptional. The combination of high temperatures and low rainfall over a sustained period has left ground hard and parched, with little sign of the kind of recovery that farmers desperately need.
For dairy operators, the pressure is constant. Cows need to eat every single day, and when pasture is not delivering, you are on the phone to feed merchants whether you like it or not. The cost of bought-in feed has not been cheap in recent years either, so farmers are getting squeezed from both ends, paying more for feed while their own output capacity is compromised.
There is also the longer-term concern about what this does to soil condition and autumn grass growth. Even if rain arrives soon, recovery takes time. Farmers who are already stretched may find the tail end of the year difficult too, with reduced fodder reserves heading into a period when they really need those stocks to be solid.
The situation is prompting calls for practical support from government and agricultural bodies. Teagasc and farming organisations have been advising producers on how to manage feed budgets and prioritise resources, but advice only goes so far when the bills keep landing.
Ireland has faced fodder crises before, most notably in 2018 when a similarly dry summer caused widespread hardship across the farming community. The lessons from that period led to some improved contingency planning, but no amount of planning fully cushions the blow when the weather simply refuses to cooperate for weeks on end.
What makes the current situation particularly tough is that many farmers are still carrying costs from a difficult previous year. Input prices for fertiliser and energy, while eased somewhat from their peak, remain elevated compared to where they were a few years ago. The financial headroom that might once have absorbed a rough patch is thinner than it used to be.
For families running these farms, this is not just a business story. It is a daily stress that follows you from the yard into the kitchen. Decisions about which animals to sell, whether to cut back on stock, how long reserves will last. These are the conversations happening around tables in farmhouses across Wexford, Kilkenny, Carlow and beyond right now.
The forecast will be watched very closely in the weeks ahead. Every day without rain is another day the meter is running.
Awful situation for them. Farming is brutal enough without the weather turning on you as well. Hope the government actually steps in with proper support this time rather than just talking about it.