With current growth rates at such high levels (50kg to 70kg/day) on many farms, it remains to be seen if we have actually started the last grazing rotation just yet.

It is likely that the paddocks being grazed this week will not be grazed again this year.

The only exception should be paddocks with high clover contents, which should be grazed now and regrazed at the end of the rotation to maintain clover content during the winter.

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Whether the other paddocks are actually closed now or not will depend on growth over the next month and average farm cover in early to mid-November.

We don’t really need to decide that at this point. The best thing to do now though is to assume that the paddocks being grazed from now on will not be grazed again.

Cleaned off

The most important grazing management target during the final grazing rotation is to make sure that paddocks are well cleaned off after grazing (and as close to a residual of 4cm as possible).

Tight grazing in the last rotation will remove decaying material and maximise light access to promote new leaf for next spring.

In many places, pre-grazing yields are over 2,000kg DM/ha currently, so strip-grazing is essential to clean off these swards which are still very good quality right to the base.

While there was a huge amount of silage cut last week and into the weekend, it is too late now to be considering mowing off surplus grass, as the recovery in paddock cut now will be poor.

Farms that are ahead of target average farm cover should instead consider reducing ration in the parlour to increase the speed of grazing through these higher covers.

The target is to graze a minimum of 2% of the farm each day from now until the end of October. If the herd is grazing too slowly due to the high pre-grazing covers, it's worth skipping into a few lighter covers every few days to get more area closed.

It's been an eventful grazing year between late springs and summer droughts and the last few weeks have brought enjoyable grazing conditions mostly. It's time now to finish strongly and prepare for 2027.