With the beginning of September, the last chance to build grass covers begins on highly stocked farms over the next few weeks.

Over the last few years, stocking rates have been creeping up on farms, leaving a lot of farmers with an increased demand over the autumn.

This is especially true for farms with an outside silage block that isn’t available to come back into the rotation now.

A farm stocked at 3.5 cows to the hectare will have a demand of close to 60kg/day and after the middle of September, we will not see growth rates above 60kg/day.

Current rates

So these farmers need to take advantage of the current high growth rates and make sure to hit target average farm cover of 1,100kg to 1,200kg by mid- to late-September.

Farmers stocked over 3.0 cows/ha need to be at an average farm cover of close to 980kg this week.

Travelling around the country last week, I found a lot of farmers where falling short of this target.

Intervention

However, with quick intervention, we found they could quickly get back on track. There were a few options discussed.

Option one: increase the concentrate level over the next three weeks reducing demand. Only an option if you are only slightly behind target.

Option two: take full advantage of the high growth rates at the moment and introduce high-quality silage for a couple of days or even a week in some cases to slow cows down and get grass back on track.

Option three: zero graze an outblock if available, which would be a preferable option than option two if grass quality was good.

Option four: all young stock should be removed from the milking platform if possible. Cull cows also may need to go if you are not able to meet target AFC.

Completing a grass budget on Pasturebase is the best way to see how much and for how long you need to supplement to get to you target cover.