Grass growth has been strong for this time of the year so far, but rates are now starting to fall back.

Coming into October, average growth across the country was up and over 60kg of dry matter (DM)/ha, which is nearly 10kg DM/ha more than the 10-year average.

However, with the nights getting longer and colder, average soil temperatures have dropped back to between 11.8° and 14.5°C.

Average growth rates are falling too as a result, with an average of 53kg DM/ha recorded across the nation by PastureBase this week.

Therefore farmers must start thinking of next spring, and put a plan into action for closing out the platform.

Grass growth

As it stands, average farm cover (AFC) across the country are sitting at 961kg DM/ha, according to PastureBase.

With this, herd are entering paddocks with average pre-grazing yields of 2,200kg DM/ha.

However, growth rates are predicted to fall sharply by approximately 10kg DM/ha over the week, bring growth rates down to the low 40kg DM/ha mark.

With demand sitting at 45kg DM/ha, farmers must be conscious not to stay full steam ahead and overgraze the platform.

Be conscious of allocations and utilise strip wires, aiming for either 12- or 24-hour allocations depending on the paddock.

In doing this, you should be able to achieve the target of 4cm residuals even in high covers, leaving a clean base for spring grass.

It is important to remember that paddocks grazed out now will be the first paddocks grazed in the spring, therefore aim to graze the driest land, ideally close to the parlour.

For now, continue to go with a 35-40 day rotation, aiming to have 60% of the platform grazed by early November and an AFC of 700-750kg DM/ha by December 1.

Drawing up a grass budget and an autumn rotation planner should help to achieve these targets.