Teagasc urges 200-300kg DM summer silage buffer after drought year

Teagasc is recommending farmers hold a summer silage contingency of 200-300kg of dry matter per livestock unit, after a drought year that kept the Moorepark herd on conserved feed for six weeks straight.

Michael O'Donovan, head of grassland science at Teagasc, said the lesson from this summer is blunt: when feed is short, feed gets dear. Bales cost €45-50 each, full costs in. Buying in mid-crisis costs far more.

"200-300kg in many respects of silage would have probably got a lot of farmers out of that dip in grass growth this year, with some concentrate," he told Agriland. "That would alleviate the need for going for bought-in options. And that's probably the resilience we want to build into the system."

Why the average growth curve no longer exists

O'Donovan points to a stepwise rise in European temperatures between 2018 and 2026, which has knocked the concept of an "average" grass growth curve on the head. An average, he notes, is just a composite of five or 10 years — and it no longer describes what happens on the ground.

Ireland will grow roughly 12.5t of grass this year, with some farms exceeding that. But the shape of the growth curve is abnormal, with sharp mid-season dips rather than a smooth arc.

"When you look at what's happening in Europe, Europe is definitely getting warmer," he said. "If you look at 2026 and if you look at 2018, there is a stepwise increase in temperatures."

Fodder shortages have hit central Europe hardest, but Irish farms — particularly on the eastern half of the country — now face the realistic prospect of needing silage in June and July. 2018 proved the point. What was once an occasional wet-weather buffer has become a heat-and-drought buffer too.

What does this change at Moorepark?

The research farm has already factored warmer summers into its system. The herd needed silage for six weeks this year, versus two weeks in 2024. It can be a short dip or a long one, O'Donovan said, and the feed has to be sitting there either way.

"We have to have silage available for the herd. Now it's beginning to be part of what we develop into the system," he said.

Crucially, that silage must come early in the year or be carried over from the previous winter. His verdict on holding stocks into spring is refreshingly practical: there's no harm anymore in having silage left at the end of the winter season. Plenty of farmers already do it.

Timing beats volume

The National Fodder and Food Security Committee (NFFSC) recently heard that grass growth has recovered strongly since mid-September, improving the national fodder supply picture. Farms carrying reserves from 2025/2026 largely limited the drought's damage to winter stocks.

Even so, O'Donovan argues the real lever is timing, not tonnage. May is the month of peak growth and peak recovery, and that's when the first cut should come off.

"We had a peak growth curve of nearly 100kg DM/ha/day there in May. That's where you can get surpluses off and have it there for the summer," he said.

That surplus is only half the equation. Timing of nitrogen, timing of slurry, and timing of the cut itself all determine whether a farm enters June with a buffer or without one.

Reseeding dates shift on drier ground

Reseeding windows need rethinking too, especially on drier farms. In wetter, western areas, late May reseeds still work because soils hold moisture. On drier ground, O'Donovan is now targeting late April to early May, giving new leys time to establish properly and deliver strong growth in their first year.

The message for next season is straightforward: build the buffer in May, carry it through winter, and treat a June-July silage gap as a planning assumption rather than a surprise.