Grass growth this week averaged 20kg/day.

It is important to walk the farm and assess the average farm cover. Knowing your AFC will allow to make a call on whether you can afford to keep on grazing. You might have planned to graze two or three more fields but if your AFC has dropped lower than expected stopping grazing today may be necessary in order to achieve your target closing cover.

Grazing for two or three days extra at this time of year can have a huge impact on your AFC as in a lot of cases your animals are eating twice the amount of grass you’re growing.

Anyone that has fallen below an AFC of 500kg/ha should be finished grazing.

In some areas ground conditions are holding up and the plan is to graze on until mid to late November. If so, you will need to increase supplementation and ensure your AFC stays within a 100kg of your target closing cover.

On/off grazing

The use of on/off grazing needs to be implemented if trying to keep cows at grass in wet conditions. Cows should only walk over an area once where possible, damage will be minimal and the land will be well recovered come next March when it will be grazed.

It’s time to look at your soil fertility and setting the farm up to maximise grass growth in 2021.

Spreading lime in the autumn while covers are low will help set up your farm for the coming year. It helps the release of nitrogen in the soil, unlocks soil phosphorous and potassium and will increase the response to applied N, P and K fertilisers.