The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) is calling on livestock farmers to assess their feed requirements now because of the continuing dry weather.

According to the Met Office, the UK is experiencing the dryest spring in over a century, which can affect the development of both cereal crops and grass. With many cattle and sheep farmers relying on grazing during the summer, and harvesting silage for winter food stocks, now is the time to make plans to help mitigate against poor grass growth.

Katie Evans, AHDB Senior Knowledge Exchange Manager, said: "There was a strong start to the grass growth season with favourable conditions. May tends to be a big growth month and early statistics have shown good growth rates achieved early in the month. However, the lack of rainfall, particularly in the driest regions where it hasn't rained for weeks, could significantly slow growth, reduce silage yields, and impact grazing availability.

"At this point, its worthwhile farmers assess both summer and winter feed requirements and start building contingency plans. This might include reviewing silage stocks, being prepared to cut earlier than usual to prioritise feed quality over bulk and considering fast-growing catch crops for summer or autumn grazing.

"Grazing management is especially important during dry periods. Rotational grazing can help protect residuals and reduce plant stress, and where pasture supply is tight, using buffer or supplementary feeding early can protect sward recovery later in the season. It's about being proactive: resting paddocks, avoiding overgrazing, and planning to preserve pasture cover. These small decisions now can help maintain long-term resilience and avoid bigger challenges later in the year."

Where first cuts have been lighter than expected, farmers are encouraged to monitor second-cut potential carefully. Low regrowth due to dry conditions could mean later or reduced second cuts, and it may be more effective to shift management strategies, such as diverting poorer fields to grazing or introducing alternative forage crops.

Katie added: "It's also important to remember that young stock turned out onto short pastures can be at greater risk of worm burdens once rain does come. With less herbage intake and no built-up immunity, monitoring growth rates and using faecal egg counts will be key to prevent setbacks in performance"

The increasing unpredictability and occurrence of extreme weather events is seeing farming put under even greater strain. Data from the UK Climate Projections (UKCP18) suggests this is set to continue and the UK will have a warmer climate while the intensity and frequency of extreme events such as heavy rainfall, heatwaves and droughts will increase. Modelling carried out by AHDB on different temperature increase scenarios up to the year 2100 shows that immediate risks to farming now are that to productivity due to extreme weather events such as heatwaves, drought, high rainfall and flooding impacting livestock and crop output.

Rachael Madeley-Davies, AHDB Head of Environment (Technical), said: "It's important to remember what makes these climatic changes so challenging is we are experiencing huge extremes. This time last year we were talking about the effects of a very wet season and now we are dealing with a lack of rain. This means any actions farmers consider will be very specific to their business, taking into account location, the type of land they have, as well as the type of farming enterprise they run. What is key is farmers start assessing the specific risks to their farm.

"Many farmers will already be aware of the risk of flooding on their farm, or experienced firsthand the impact of extreme rainfall, heatwaves and drought. However, it now needs to be a focus for all as we see more and more of these events. Everyone should be assessing their business and identifying potential risk areas and taking action."

For information and resources to help you manage dry weather conditions, visit: ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/weather

For more information on climate change adaptation, visit: ahdb.org.uk/climate-adaptation-report