Grass growth at the minute remains static but with more moisture in the soil, growth should improve and farmers need to balance building covers with ensuring cows remain out at grass for as long as possible.

This is not an easy thing to do, as the catch-22 last season was that the back-end came so good that farmers kept cows out for much longer, which is beneficial but closing farm covers took a hit which affected opening covers in spring.

So, for the remainder of the year, dairy farmers need to do all they can to ensure their cows stay out at grass for as long as possible without impacting on closing farm covers - a balance needs to be struck.

No matter what part of the country you are in - whether you've been experiencing a drought or heavy rain or in sandy soil or heavy soils - there needs to be an effort to keep cows out at grass for as long as possible this autumn, as it could make the difference in margins come the end of a year.

As it is now mid-September, it is important to remember that potentially 20-25% of the total grass growing season remains for 2025.

Some farm set-ups and systems will be unable to stay out for that long, but there needs to be an effort made to maximise the grass growing season by attempting to extend your grazing season.

Current grass growth as per PastureBase Ireland on average across the country is at 52kg dry matter (DM)/ha/day which is normal growth for this time of year.

However, due to extensive dry weather in parts of the south and south-east of the country, soil moisture deficits have impacted on building farm covers.

As 80% of farmers recording growth on PatureBase Ireland are currently behind their target, some farmers will simply not reach these targets and will need to target an AFC of 850-900kg DM/ha for late September.

The rotation length should be at 35 days for mid-September, and make all of the farm area available, if possible, to the grazing herd. Implementing a 12-hour strip wire will be necessary to allocate grass correctly.

In order to achieve these extra days at grass, farmers must meet their grazing targets for the remainder of the year.

The first target is to build grass supply in order to extend the grazing season right into November, and then to make sure the farm is closed with enough grass supply for the spring of 2025.

Extending the number of days your cows are out at grass will help reduce your feed budget costs, as you will not be feeding as much concentrates and silage.

Every extra day at grass in the autumn is worth approximately €3/cow/day, according to Teagasc.

The autumn grazing targets for a farm with a stocking rate of 3.0 livestock units (LU)/ha are as follows:

By November 1, 65% of your grazing platform should be closed with an average farm cover (AFC) of 650-800kg DM/ha, depending on your spring demand.

By now, the whole milking platform should be available to all of the milking cows, and any young stock should be moved to out farms if possible in order to maximise the amount of grass available to the cows.

Farmers who do not achieve these targets this autumn can see increased supplement costs of €100/cow, and it is the same scenario for farmers who are over-stocked.

If AFC is behind target, farmers should supplement with silage or meal to help build covers over the coming days.

If AFC is currently at 600kg DM/ha, if demand is held at 30kg DM/ha/day, AFC will increase by 350kg DM/ha over the next two weeks.

If growth is 55kg DM/ha, it will bring the AFC to over 900kg DM/ha.

This can only be achieved by introducing more silage into the diet, as silage will replace more grass in the diet than meal, allocating more grazing area to cows or removing surplus stock such as dry cows or heifers off milking block.

Introducing zero-grazed grass is also an option at the moment while grass growth is still present and soil temperatures are still high; however, this has to be done sooner rather than later.

There are only about three weeks left to capitalise on grass growth as grass growth will decline rapidly in late September.

The fertiliser spreading period for nitrogen and phosphorus is set to close this Monday, September 15, so farmers should get out 20 units of N/ac to any paddock that has not received it in the last three weeks, allowances permitting.