With poor weather conditions and shorter days, grass growth has dropped significantly over the last week.

Currently, grass growth is averaging 32kg dry matter (DM)/ha, with DM coming in at just above 12%, meaning whatever bit of grass is left in the rotation is everything that is left in front of the herd.

A lot of farmers still have the mob grazing around the clock, while many others are carrying out 12-hour grazings to finish the rotation.

Despite most places already being at saturation, ideally you should try to keep grass in the diet if the pastures let you.

However, bear in mind it is not worth it if you are going to severely poach land.

Final grazing

Most farms will realistically be closed up within the next two to three weeks, especially considering the rain we are promised over this coming week.

Despite this, most farmers were only targeting 70% of the platform grazed by this weekend, and hoping for a closing AFC of over 700kg DM/ha by late November.

Considering a lot of farms close out the platform based on their spring rotation, ensuring you finish grazing is the ideal situation to encourage good grass growth for next year.

To ensure you are grazing out these paddocks efficiently, consider using on/off grazings and implementing strip fencing.

Cows carry out most of their grazing in the first two hours post-milking.

Remember you want to continue achieving a 4cm post-grazing residual so let cows out hungry.

Adjust night-time housing diets and concentrates accordingly: for example if cows are still taking in 13kg of fresh grass, feed 2.5kg silage and 3.5kg meal.

Spring grass

The rest of the 2025 grazing season must be done with spring 2026 in mind, rather than overdoing it in the back end of this year.

Everyone wants to finish off the year on a high, keeping costs low and production high, especially with the uncertainty of spring's milk prices.

However, you must remember that spring grass is much more valuable than autumn grass, and with compact calving, spring demands are higher than ever, putting the value of spring grass now above €4/cow/day.

That means it is crucial for farms with an AFC below 700kg DM/ha to monitor grass closely.

They virtually have no grass left bar whatever is growing, so reducing stocking rates by housing dry cows or heifers is recommended.

On the contrary, some farms are still above 900kg DM/ha, these farms need to push to increase demand, removing silage and meal from the diet to graze out pastures quickly and efficiently.

At the end of the day, it is good to remember that each week delayed in closing reduces spring grass supply by over 100kg DM/ha.