The calm after the storms this week has revived autumn grazing on many farms.
With the outlook for high pressure to continue into the weekend with settled and largely dry conditions, now is a great opportunity to clean off any remaining heavy covers to ensure that the farm is well set up for spring 2027.
On heavier soils, animals are in at night now. Continuing to graze by day will allow any remaining heavy covers to be cleared from heavier paddocks.
While soils are saturated, on/off grazing and back fencing can clean off paddocks which may not be grazed again until late March.
Overall farm cover is generally not limiting on heavier soils, so using the good weather to access heavier parts of the farm can extend the grazing season.
Daily grass growth rates across the country are back to seasonal norms (15-25kg DM/ha), and demand has been reduced to 25-30kgDM/ha on most dairy farms with silage introduced. Some drier farms are still grazing full time in the current conditions.
Most of the area required for early grazing is already closed, and covers of 600-800kgDM/ha are already back on these paddocks for spring. There are still pre-grazing yields of 1,800-2,500kgDM/ha in some places, so the dry weather will get the full utilisation of this feed.
We’re into time added on for autumn grazing, so now is the time to clean off clover swards and marginal paddocks which may not be grazed again until late March. Predicted growth for the week ahead is 15-20kgDM/day in most regions, so any heavy covers (greater than 1,400kg DM/ha) can be whipped off without running down the overall farm cover.
Continue to measure grass supplies weekly as farm cover will continue to fall each week.
The target should be to match demand to growth over the next two weeks so that the average farm cover remains at 750kgDM/ha at the end of November.
PastureBase data shows that approximately 12TDM/ha has been grown year-to-date on dairy farms. This is down approximately 0.7TDM/ha on last year but similar to the five year average. The good autumn has transformed the 2026 grazing season, and overall annual growth will be in or around 12.5 T DM/ha for the full year.
Adam Walsh – Enniscorthy, Co Wexford
Grazing conditions are super here at the moment. Although pre-grazing yields are still at 1,700kgDM/ha, cows are very content and cleaning out the high covers well.
Our average farm cover has dropped from 1,100kgDM/ha last week and we’re feeding 4kg of silage at night to reduce demand to 35kg/ha/day. We have 80% of the farm closed and we will be finished grazing in 10-14 days. There is 600-700kg back on the first paddocks closed.
We will leave a closing cover of 750kgDM/ha at housing and we’re aiming for an opening cover of 1,000kgDM/ha at the start of calving. We have culls and empty cows sold now to stretch grass for another two weeks.
Stocking rate (LU/ha) 3.5
Growth (kg/ha) 37
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 901
Yield (l/cow) 12.5
Fat (%) 5.48
Protein (%) 4.28
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.3
Concentrates (kg/cow) 4.5
Niamh Campion – Teagasc Kildalton Piltown, Co Kilkenny
We’re planning to graze day and night for the rest of this week. Pre-grazing yield is at 1,800kgDM/ha and we’re allocating 12-hour breaks and back fencing as we go.
We fed some silage during the wet weather but we’ve removed that again now. We had 64% of the farm grazed off on 1 November and we’re aiming to close up the farm with an average cover of 750kgDM/ha on 24 November.
We have left some of the high clover content paddocks to graze last so we will get light into the base of those swards during winter to promote the clover.
We are starting to dry off some early calvers this week which will drop demand and stretch grass.
Stocking rate (LU/ha) 2.4
Growth (kg/ha) 15
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 843
Yield (l/cow) 12.0
Fat (%) 5.63
Protein (%) 4.25
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.3
Concentrates (kg/cow) 3.0
Mícheál O’Leary – Mallow, Co Cork
Ground is still very good here, but grazing is coming to an end after a super seven or eight weeks of growth. We will be putting the cows in at night at the weekend and we will graze them by day for another week or so.
We reseeded 17% of the platform this year so we will be grazing these paddocks over the next few days so they tiller out over winter.
We are aiming to have 800-850kgDM/ha on 1 December, as we usually grow 150-200kgDM/ha over the winter. Once the cows are housed, we will do some maintenance work on cow roads.
After a very dry summer, grass production will be close to 12TDM/ha with 178kgN/ha spread for 2026.
Stocking rate (LU/ha) 2.6
Growth (kg/ha) 29
Average farm cover (kg/ha) 726
Yield (l/cow) 13.9
Fat (%) 5.69
Protein (%) 4.39
Milk solids (kg/cow) 1.4
Concentrates (kg/cow) 3.0
