Average grass growth this week is 25kg/day, twice the 10-year average for the same week. The weather is fantastic and ground conditions are perfect. Soil temperatures are between two and four degrees higher than normal. However, nights have become cold, and there are morning frosts, so I would expect growth rates to tail off over the next week or 10 days.

There is a big variation in the average farm covers of our Grass + participant farms. Some farmers are hitting average farm cover of 500kg/ha and should be looking at closing up fully now. Others are in a better position – with some average farm covers still over 900kg and are in a strong position to keep grazing for the next few weeks and close at 600 to 700kg/ha.

While the weather is good, the temptation to keep grazing should be avoided. The objective of the autumn is to set the farm up for spring, so don’t sacrifice this for the sake of a couple of extra days’ grazing at this time of year. See more on the Management Notes on page 70.

There is a cover back on most of the first closed paddocks of between 800 and 1,000kg/ha. It’s too early to be concerned about carrying over high covers. Generally it’s carrying over covers of more than 1,300kg that poses problems.

Whether they grow to this level or not depends on the weather for the next month, but a call on this can be made then. Keep focussing on achieving good clean-outs and leaving nice residuals, as this will help to improve the quality of over-wintered grass. If feeding silage or housing at night, try and ensure cows have some sort of an appetite before going out to graze.

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Grass+ beef: another good grazing week in store