In response, Irish farmers are adopting some novel and diverse forage strategies to improve the resilience of their systems and maintain productivity under dry conditions. Multi-species swards, summer brassicas and hybrid grasses are 3 solutions growing in popularity in recent years

In addition to a nitrogen fertiliser saving of up to 75%, multi-species sward offer improved summer growth and better drought tolerance compared to simpler mixtures of grass and white clover. These swards are a combination of grasses, clovers and herbs with their key advantage being their root diversity.

Each different species can utilise soil water at different depths thus improving overall water-use efficiency. This root diversity and summer growth enables multi-species swards to maintain decent growth rates under water stress when perennial ryegrass tends to suffer.

The fastest way to fill a forage feedgap is with a brassica like Mainstar forage rape or Skyfall. These crops produce massive yields of quality forage 6-10 weeks post sowing in spring and can save on expensive imported feed during summer dry spells.

May-sown brassicas are a flexible drought buffer and if sown after first-cut silage will provide quality grazing in late summer, improve soil structure and help control weeds before autumn reseeding.