Rainfall and the mild weather has improved grass growth across the country, which is helping farmers maximise grass intake while building farm covers.

The story for most of the summer growing season has been that the south and south-east of the country has been struggling with soil moisture deficits.

However, with recent rainfall, these farmers are beginning to build covers and the aim now is to hold the grazing rotation to 35 days and keep grass in the diet.

On a recent episode of the Dairy Trail podcast which was broadcasted at the National Ploughing Championship, Co. Galway dairy farmer, Mella Briscoe and Co. Cork dairy farmer, Joe Deane talked about their current grass situation.

There was a stark contrast between the two.

Mella highlighted that in Co. Galway, she has been growing grass consistently throughout the year and that they only began feeding supplementary bales two weeks ago to build covers and hold the rotation.

Mella only went in with bales due to a bit of reseeding that raised the demand on one of her two milking platforms.

She said "growth has been very consistent" and that they are forecasting to produce 530kg of milk solids/cow this year, well above the 495kg MS/cow produced last year.

Joe on the other hand has been struggling to build covers over the last month, as soil moisture deficits have really slowed up growth, but he highlighted that the situation is turning around with the recent rainfall.

Joe said that "the cows are back on track in the last week" as on the four farms he is farming off, cows are back to 1kg of meal, while the fodder beet he has been feeding has kept things afloat.

Current average farm covers across the four farms are at 800-900kg DM/ha, with growth currently up over 60kg DM/ha, aiding in cows producing between 1.5-1.8kg milk solids/cow.

The average farm cover (AFC) has improved, as the average across the country increased to 749kg DM/ha. However, over 70% of farms are still behind target, according to Pasturbase Ireland.

Many farmers will simply not reach these targets as growth rates will begin to slacken the closer we get to October and these farmers will need to target an AFC of 850-900kg DM/ha for late September.

For farmers that are on target, an average farm cover of over 1,000kg DM/ha needs to be the target and for heavily stocked farms, this figure should be closer to 1,150kg DM/ha.

Building covers aside, farmers need to realise that it is now mid-September, and potentially 20-25% of the total grass growing season remains for 2025.

Current grass growth as per PastureBase Ireland on average across the country has improved slightly to 56kg dry matter (DM)/ha/day.

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 may be necessary to allocate grass correctly and can be effective for slowing down the rotation but also for ensuring decent post-grazing residuals.

If AFC is behind target, farmers should supplement with silage or meal to help build covers over the coming days and if AFC is 700kg DM/ha, if demand is held at 30-35kg DM/ha/day, AFC will increase by 250-300kg DM/ha over the next two weeks.

If growth is 50-55kg DM/ha, it will bring the AFC to 950-1,000kg DM/ha and get farmers back on track.

This is important to remember as realistically there is only two weeks left of good grass growing weather and this needs to be exploited.

Although the chemical nitrogen (N) and phosphorus spreading period is closed, farmers can still get nutrients out to the ground in the form of slurry up until October 1 and dairy washing up until December 1.

Applying dairy washings to paddocks can make a significant N contribution this autumn, targeting about 2,000gals/ac.

Also, potassium (K) can still be spread, and so farmers should aim to get out an application of muriate of potash (MOP) for paddocks that are low on K.

Lime can be spread all year round, and autumn is often a great opportunity to get it done, targeting paddocks that have a low pH - ensure that paddocks are well grazed or spread after a cut of silage.