A helpline in Co Limerick has been flooded with calls from farmers seeking assistance with the fodder crisis.
Ms Ann Allen, of the Farm Support Network, has had to deal with farmers who are suicidal because of the financial stress relating to the bad winter, lack of fodder for their cattle and lack of income for their families.
She said the network has thrown a lifeline to many farmers in the last nine months.
In recent weeks they had been able to source hay and silage for farmers who did not know where to find it.
Overproduction of cattle on Irish farms - the highest number ever recorded in this country was reported in June last year at nearly eight million - would not in itself have brought the problem to a head.
But a combination of high numbers and persistent rainfall since April of last year have combined to create a horrific situation on many farms, particularly in the west.
Average rainfall last year in some parts of the country was as much as 30 per cent above average and many smallholders, without machinery, were unable to make enough hay and silage to help them feed cattle over the winter.
The poor weather continued into the autumn and farmers were forced to house their animals nearly a month earlier than they would do in a normal year.
They did this to protect the grass from what is known as "poaching". Animals destroy grassland and trample much of it into the ground if they are allowed graze when it is very wet underfoot.
Trampling the autumn grass means spring growth is delayed, and in extreme cases pasture has to be reseeded if it is grazed in wet weather.
Now, within a few days of the official start of spring, the rainfall has persisted and grass growth is very poor.
Where available, it cannot be grazed because of the danger of damage. There is now extreme pressure on the available fodder stock and this has sent the price of baled silage to a record high.