The past week has seen a turn in conditions on farms, as the blissful grazing conditions of early October have given way to more sticky conditions underfoot.

The weekend weather promised for some of the country, with an orange alert for Mayo and Galway and a yellow alert for the remainder of the country from midday on Sunday, could be the final straw with regard to grazing.

The net result for drystock farmers will be that dry cows and finishing cattle will be indoors within the next few days, with farmers likely to try to hold weanlings and dairy-beef calves out for another fortnight or so.

For dairy farmers, it will be a case of multiple gaps, back-fencing and some housing by night. With grass covers already low on a lot of farms, this has been happening already for many.

With cows in their final quarter of lactation, where grass is tight on farm, it is more beneficial to hold this over for the spring when it will be of more financial and nutritional benefit to freshly calved cows.

Regrowths

Regrowths are good on paddocks that were grazed earlier this month, with a combination of mild weather and lower covers being grazed (sub-1,500kg DM/ha) resulting in some nice lush grass coming back on to these paddocks.

If it comes between resisting the urge to graze these and resisting another biscuit, eat the packet of Mikados. They will only cost you roughly a fiver, but regrazing these covers as opposed to holding them over will be a much more costly affair, as you will have to get more concentrates into freshly calved dairy and suckler cows to keep their energy levels up indoors.

Farmyard manure

Time is ticking on farmyard manure (FYM) spreading for this year, with the closed period beginning on 1 November.

While spreading of dung and slurry can often be concentrated on those paddocks closest to the yard for handiness, it’s worth taking a few minutes to think about where P and K is most needed on farm.

Paddocks that were baled up as surplus but never got compounds back out on them or red clover paddocks that may not have gotten sufficient slurry to replace offtakes from multiple cuts should be targeted.