By and large, cattle remain at grass across many farms.

While it may not be the entire herd 24 hours a day, stock are still getting to grass with minimal damage being reported.

Every day at grass now is a bonus for many and, as a general rule of thumb, it has been a solid back end for the majority.

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Grass supplies

As reported in this week’s Grass10 weekly newsletter, 29% of dairy farms have an average farm cover (AFC) of less than 700kg DM/ha, 34% are on target with an AFC ranging from 700kg to 900kg DM/ha, whereas the remaining 37% of farms have an AFC in excess of 900kg DM/ha.

For farms falling into the first category, it is recommended to keep demand below growth; these farms cannot graze more than the farm grows from now until closing or opening farm cover will be adversely affected.

This will be all the more challenging as grass growth rates are entering their seasonal dip, falling to an average of 36kg DM/ha/day last week and predicted to dip further next week to an average of 24kg DM/ha/day.

Given this predicted growth rate, farms with a stocking rate of 3LU/ha must maintain grass intake per cow below 8kg/DM/day.

Housing by night

In essence, this means housing cows by night, regardless of whether ground conditions can allow them out day and night, as it will be very difficult to get 10kg of additional dry matter into cows, with high levels of meal likely not to pay out at the other end.

While ground conditions still allow it and nutrients will still be absorbed, it’s a good idea to get soiled water tanks emptied now, even though the spreading period is open for another month.

What isn’t open for another month is the open period for applying farm yard manure, with this closing on 31 October.