Heavy rain across the country on Friday has meant that many farms are as wet now as they have been since last March or April.

With shorter days and longer nights, the opportunity for land to dry out gets less and less.

The difference between 25mm of rain falling in early September versus 25mm of rain falling at the end of September is stark.

It’s a particular challenge when cows are grazing high covers of grass. Farms are at peak grass supply now and by right they should be wading through covers of 2,000 to 2,500kg/ha.

If land turns wet, move cows to lighter covers to improve grass utilisation. This will means cows will be grazing a larger area, but if it avoids doing damage, then so be it.

Another key step is to put cows on a 12-hour break, rather than letting them over full fields of grass where they get two or three grazings.

At this time of year and with appropriate grass allocations, cows will be more content on 12-hour breaks rather than being asked to go back and clean out a paddock for the second or third time.

If ground conditions are tricky and if extra supplement such as silage is being fed because grass is scarce, then it may be sensible to skip feeding silage for a few days until such time as ground conditions improve.

The reason for this is that if cows don’t have a strong appetite for grass, as is the case if they are eating a lot of supplement in a yard, they tend to do more damage out the field.