The weather at the Virginia Show was much like the weather has been since the start of this year: too wet at first, followed by hot and dry periods.
While the estimated 10,000 visitors at the 83rd edition of this Co Cavan annual show pulled up their rain hats and hoods, some farmers cast a grateful glance to the sky.
The rain was a welcome contribution to many a rosette awarded at one of Ireland’s major agricultural shows.
“In my career it’s the worst year I’ve ever experienced. We thought 2018 was bad, but this has been much worse,” says Co Kildare farmer John Coakley (27) after his in-calf heifer was named champion of her class.
READ MORE
At their Maynooth farm, they keep 500 cows. Not having fresh grass initially is not such a big issue, John explains, because they are running “a high producing cow”, who responds well to feed.
However, his main concern is the market.
“The price of milk hasn’t changed to cope with the extra feeding that we’re given,” he says.
For Longford farmer Sinead McKeon (20) the weather has turned just in time.
“The grass has come in the last three days since we got the rain. Good thing when you have cows in calf,” she says.
Once the calves are a few days old, they are brought to the fields. One of last year’s offspring now dons a red rosette for best suckler heifer.
McKeon works the family farm with her parents and sister on 100 acres of land, some of which had “become quite dry”.
More than 400 classes across sheep, poultry, ponies, dogs, homemaking and livestock are judged at the popular Virginia show.
With 370 entries in the dairy, pedigree beef and commercial cattle breeds – and 25 for the Diageo Baileys Irish Champion Dairy Cow, or the “cream of the cream”, as vice-president of the show Ronan O’Reilly calls it – there has been a massive increase in the livestock section of this year’s show.
In the Teagasc tent, adviser John Conway at the agricultural development authority speaks about the current moisture deficit caused by the summer hot spells.
“You wouldn’t have to go far from here, a farmer hit 65mm on heavy soil. What’s that going to be like for farmers in Carlow with 95?” he asks, referring to the deficit in millimetres.
Once the moisture deficit rises above 25mm, the growth of grass slows down, he says. Once it passes 50mm, growth drops abruptly.
“Everyone is buffer feeding right now,” says a Longford farmer who didn’t want to give his name, referring to how farmers are using winter stocks of feed where grass isn’t available.
This summer’s heatwaves have resulted in some livestock farmers spending large sums of money feeding their cattle with winter fodder because grass growth has been so poor.
Conway is certain the impact of the “ongoing fodder crisis” will be felt until next March or April.
He worries in particular about the farmers further south where the weather has been drier and grass growth poorer.
“It’s going to be very hard for farmers to make up the fodder deficit,” he says.
For this brief moment of celebration in Co Cavan, the red, blue and yellow rosettes awarded in Virginia will cover the cracks in the dry fields at home.
[ Farmers count the cost of prolonged drought: ‘Do the maths, that’s €3,500 a week’Opens in new window ]
