For many farmers, average farm cover at closing means little or nothing as their closing date, that is the date they house their cows for the winter is 100% controlled by the weather.

Some will argue that all farmers are in the same boat, but I disagree. For those on good ground, regardless of where that is in the country, closing date will be influenced by management 90% of the time.

The ideal time to close up for the winter is late enough in the current season to have 280 to 300 days at grass and early enough to make sure there is sufficient grass available for the start of the next season.

Good ground

For most farmers on good ground, this is around mid-November. For those on more challenging ground they need to be prepared to house from now on, whenever ground conditions deteriorate.

Current conditions are reasonably good on most farms, but the heavy rain from August is still in evident on heavy, poorly drained soils.

In terms of closing at an appropriate cover to have enough grass for next spring is harder figure to work out.

The only way to accurately know this is to do a grass budget from now (or ideally from late August) to next April.

The target is to have an average farm cover of 500kg/ha on 6 April, 2021 and to have given the cows 60 days and nights at grass prior to 6 April.

Perhaps this is a tall order, and it certainly is on heavy farms and in wet weather but at the same time this is the essence of low cost, grass-based dairy farming and we should be striving to achieve it.

The grass budget will estimate how much grass the cows will eat and how much grass the farm will grow

You need to work back from 6 April to find out how much grass you should have on 1 February. The grass budget will estimate how much grass the cows will eat and how much grass the farm will grow.

In the majority of cases the average farm cover on 1 February needs to be about twice that of 6 April.

Achieving the target cover on 1 February is all about closing cover on 1 December and how much you will grow over the winter.

Take time over the next few weeks to do a grass budget. When you know the target you can make adjustments on your own farm, such as putting in feed or grazing for longer than planned if you have more grass than required.

The easiest way to complete a grass budget is through the PastureBase programme which is available free of charge for all farmers.