Drought is lurking again

The heavy rainfall in February caused problems for many livestock farmers, who were forced to postpone fertilization because of wet pastures. Now that the manure has been spread everywhere and the nice weather seems to be continuing, there is again talk of a possible drought. 

The graphs that have been made public by various water boards show that in most places in the Netherlands the groundwater levels are still at a normal level for this time of year. This data shows a drop in the groundwater level in the past week. 

Economical with groundwater
The Aa en maas water board calls on farmers to be frugal with the use of groundwater for agricultural land. Due to the heavy rainfall in February, the shortage of groundwater has been replenished, but due to the drier weather of recent weeks, the groundwater level is falling rapidly. 

Grass grows well
The participants of the Boerenbusiness Roughage Tour report that the grass on their plots is growing very fast with the higher temperatures of last week. According to them, the soil is still wet enough for the grass to grow well, but a shower of rain is allowed to get the surface moist to allow the slurry and fertilizer to do their job. 

Irrigation becomes difficult
In Zeewolde (Flevoland), the participating livestock farmer is suffering from the dry weather, the soil on his plots is as hard as concrete. Last week he therefore already started irrigating parcels of onions that still have to be sown, he also wants to irrigate his freshly sown parcel of grass. He now borrows a reel from an arable farmer for irrigating because his new reel is still in Italy and is not coming to the Netherlands for the time being due to the corona virus.

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